A Vengeful Digimon
by January Frost
Summary: When a new evil Digimon sucks two girls into the digital world, it's up to the Tamers to save them! Pairings: Ryo/Rika, Takato/Jeri, Henry/Alice, Kazu/OC, Kenta/OC Sorry.. i'm not too good at summaries... XP
1. Chapter 1

(A/N: January: Hiya! This is kinda my first digimon fic, so it might not be as good as it could be..

I warn you, updates might not be all that refular, with school and my upcoming exams (oh merde…) but what's a 15-year-old to do?

Etheron: Work, that's what.

January: Shutit, Eth. Oh, btw, Etheron's my fox. He sorta keeps me company :D

Etheron: and keeps you in line. NOW WRITE THE STORY! smacks January in the head

January: Oww… well, on with the show!

Disclaimer: I don't won Digimon. I only own my 2 OCs, and Monamon, along with all her digivolutions. I don't own Lunamon, or any of her Digivolutions. All the tamers belong to the guy who created digimon, who's name I can't seem to find on wikipedia..

--;

Pairings: Rika/Ryo, Takato/Jeri, Henry/Alice, Kazu/OC, Kenta/OC

Somewhere in Canada

A 15 year old girl sat at her computer, reading her email. Her gold-blond hair was tied up in two braids, and she sat wrapped in a blanket because of the usual winter weather.

"Spam.. spam.. chain email… spam.. –Hey, what's this?"

The girl clicked an email with no name, and marked "File Attached"

"Whaa-? It says 'Monamon' I wonder what that could be.. Sounds like something from that digimon cardgame.. or like one of those creatures that appeared over in Japan a few years ago…" The girl clicked 'Download' "C'mon c'mon COME ON!!" she muttered impatiently.

The machine pinged. 'Download done'

"What's this?" she looked at the picture on the screen. "Aww, how cute! What a cute little picture!" Then she noticed something sitting by her mouse. "Well this wasn't here before.." she muttered before picking up the object.

Then her computer screen flashed bright white, and with a gasp, she slumped over her keyboard.

West Shinjuku

"Takato! Your friends are her to see you!" Takato Matsuki's mother shouted up the stairs of the bakery.

Takato Matsuki, age 15 and the unofficial leader of the Tamers, sat up in his room watching tv. "Send them up! I'm in my room!" he shouted down to his mom.

Shortly after, three people came up the stairs. Kazu Shioda, Kenta Kitagawa and Jeri Katou, three of the Tamers walked into Takato's room.

"Hey guys." Takato greeted.

"Hey Takato, watcha watchin'?" Kazu asked, looking over at the tv. "Aww, it's just the news! Can't you watch something more… interesting, for once?"

"Honestly, Kazu. The news twice as interesting as what you watch" Jeri said, frowning in a disciplining way.

"I'll have you know, anime is very intellectual." Kazu crossed his arms over his chest. "Besides, you're just standing up for Ta-ka-to." Takato blushed.

"Hey.." Kenta finally spoke. "You might want to look at this."

"… and in entertainment news, popular 15-year-old singing sensation, Namiko Orikasa has been found in a comatose state, sitting in front of a blank-screened computer.." The television showed a picture of a pretty young girl with wavy black hair that hung over her left eye and was pulled back on the right by a purple clip. Her skin was a porcelain white and her eyes flashed green. "Fans are devastated, as tomorrow her tour of Japan kicks off in West Shinjuku. Doctors are still studying her condition. Recent newly weds…"

"Aww man!" Kazu whined. "I was gonna go see her concert tomorrow! This is soo not fair!"

Jeri, Kenta and Takato gave him weird looks.

"You.. you like that kind of music? It's all so.. happy and bubbly, and GIRLY.." Takato said, in a state of shock. It was pretty freaky to hear Kazu confess to listening to music meant for 8 year olds.

"Nah, I don't care about the music. I'm going to see Namiko live. That girl is hot!"

Then the news caught their attention again. "This just in—The Namiko Orikasa case could possibly be related to that of a Canadian girl. Katherine Etherson, a 15-year-old, was found in the same state, at about the same time as Mrs. Orikasa. She was also found in front of a blank computer. Could there be some connection? And now onto the weather."

Takato looked up at his friends. "Hey.. where's Henry? I thought he said he was coming, too!"

"Oh, he called me and told me he couldn't come, because his dad's colleague is coming over to his house with his kid, and Mr. Wong wanted him to keep her company. Apparently they come over a lot, and Henry's pretty good friends with the kid. He said we should just plan the trip without him." Kenta replied.

"And I guess Rika wouldn't come?"

Jeri shook her head. "I called her, but she said her mom was forcing her to do another modeling thing.."

"Well, we'd better get started, then." Takato walked over to his desk, and grabbed the notebook he usually used to plan their trips to the digital world. "So since it's summer holidays, we can be gone for awhile. I was thinking around 1 or 2 weeks. Any suggestions?"

Rika was really, really regretting her agreeing to do this photo shoot.

The only reason she had actually agreed to have her hair done, all that makeup put on and bright lights shone in her face was because her mom had told her that she was going to be on the cover of "Digimon Weekly", a magazine that contained articles about the card game, the videogames, and most importantly, the top players. She had never known that HE would be there, and especially not that their photo shoot was a COMBINED shoot. Meaning she was going to be sharing that coverpage, and that article with the 'Digimon King', aka Ryo Akiyama.

"Hey pumpkin, you ready for the shoot?" The one and only Legendary Tamer said cheerfully as he walked over to Rika. His trademark grin was plastered all over his face, as usual. Rika was not amused.

"No, Akiyama, I am most definitely NOT ready to have my picture taken with YOU. The only reason I came to this stupid thing was cuz I was promised the cover of "Digimon Weekly" to MYSELF." she snapped icily.

Ryo seemed unfazed by her anger. "So I hear Takato's planned another trip to the digital world. You going?"

"Yea, Gogglehead's planned another camping trip. Whoopee.." Rika glared around the room. "But yea, I am going. Anything to get away from this stupidity."

"Great!" Ryo's smile got even wider. "It'll be lots of fun, don't worry! Maybe we could share a tent!" Ryo winked.

"WHAT?!"

"Kidding.. just kidding!" Ryo rubbed the back of his head, anime-style. "Hey.. is that the photographer calling? I'd better dash!" He ran off. Rika glared angrily after him.

The Wong residence's doorbell rang. Henry rushed to the door, and opened it to see a blond girl about his age and an older man. Alice and Rob McCoy.

"Hey Alice, Mr. McCoy." Henry smiled in a friendly way.

"Hello Henry. Where's Janyu?" Mr. McCoy asked.

Henry pointed down the hallway. "He's in his office. You probably know where it is, by now."

"Great, thanks. Alice, why don't you show Henry that new program of yours on your computer?" Rob left down the hall of the Wong's house.

"Soo… wanna go to my room?" Henry asked.

Alice nodded. "There actually is something I need to show you, though. Don't let me forget."

Henry smiled, and grabbed her hand, leading her to his room.

Once they were in, Henry shut the door behind him. He turned to Alice and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Good to see you again." He whispered in her ear.

Alice's arms went around his neck. "Yea, you too."

Henry kissed her gently. He broke away, and sat on the bed, patting the spot beside him. "So what was it you had to show me?" he asked.

(A/N: In this Fanfic, Alice and Henry are already secretly together. The other Tamers don't really know much about Alice, except what they know from the D-Reaper event. I'll write about how they get together in another fic, which I'll post soon-ish)

Alice sat beside him and opened her black laptop. "There's a new digimon in the digital world. And it isn't good.

January: So what do ya think? It's kinda short, cuz my mum wants me to go to bed, since it's so late.. --

Etheron: It's not that late, only 9:45 pm!

January: Well it's late if you have to get up at 6am every morning! So next chapter up soon.. Sorry that this one's so short! R&R, please!!


	2. Chapter 2

(A/N)January: Thanks SOOOOO much to my reviewers and those who added me to their story alerts/faves :3 that totally made my day :D

Etheron: Get on with it…

January: Rightee-oo…

So here's the next chappie of "A Vengeful Digimon". If you've noticed a change in the title, you're totally right! I had to change it from "AN Vengeful Digimon" to "A Vengeful Digimon" when I noticed the mistake.

Etheron: Idiot…

January: I wish I'd come up with a better title, though..

So in this chapter, there'll be more Ryuki, and they'll get to the digital world.

BTW, I'm using the American ages and names, incase you haven't noticed. The Japanese ones just get me really, REALLY confused..

xX.X.Xx

This photo shoot was just getting worse and worse for Rika Nonaka.

The photographer had made them do individual poses at first, saying stupid things to Rika like "Work it, girl!" And "Smile pretty for the camera, Sweetie Pie!", which caused Ryo to snicker from his place at the refreshment table.

Then came the inevitable. Somehow, Rika just KNEW it was going to happen.

"Well, we have some great shots so far, darlings" said the camera man. "BUT.. we don't have any shots of you two together!" He shooed the two photo shoot-ees (A/N: I made that word up..) back towards the set.

Rika just stood there with her arms crossed, doing her usual Ice Queen look. Ryo smiled cheerily. The Photographer snapped a few pictures.

Now don't think that's what Rika thought was the worst part. No, the photographer just COULDN'T be satisfied with the two of them in the picture. He just HAD to have something more, didn't he?

"Well, that's pretty good work, you two. We've almost got what we need." He chirped. One word stood out for Rika: "ALMOST".

"What do you mean by 'ALMOST'?" She demanded.

"Welll… do you think we could take a few shots of you two being more.. intimate?" the photographer asked innocently.

Both Ryo and Rika gave him blank stares. Ryo was the first to speak.

"What do you mean by 'INTIMATE'?" he asked. Rika feared the worst. There was no way, NO WAY she was going to do anything like-

"Well… I dunno, maybe you two could act more like a… like a _couple_" the photographer was still using that utterly innocent, 'Just-a-suggestion' tone of voice. Rika knew there was no getting out of this now. She'd been to photo shoots before, and she knew full well that no matter how much they sounded like they were simply asking you opinion, they were going to get their way. Finally, she burst.

"WE'RE NOT A COUPLE!" she shouted angrily.

The photographer shrugged. "I know that.. but… it'd be very good for our sales, if we had a story like _that_"

Rika glared. "No. No way. Never."

"Okayy.. fine…" the photographer sighed. "I guess we'll just have to use that picture of that gamer kid who beat the new video game in 24 hours as our cover page story.. we might be able to fit your article in around the end, though… since it's not going to be such an eye-grabber…"

Rika glared at the photographer. 'Damn him!' she thought. 'Resorting to blackmail, just to get me to.. to act like I'm going out Hero-boy, and to paste it all over the media.'

She shook her head no. "Think I care? Think again. If that's all you want, then I'm leaving." She turned towards the studio doors, and was taking a step to leave when she felt a hand grab her wrist.

"Rika, you can't!" Ryo cried dramatically. "This article means so much to me! I'd be totally shattered if I gave up the front page to a gamer!"

'Ryo's a good actor..' Rika thought. 'This is DEFINETLY not fair.' If it wasn't for the twinkle in the blue-eyed boys eyes, or the quick wink he gave her, she would've totally believed him. And probably broken down laughing.

"That's right!" the photographer completely bought the acting, and whether what Ryo was saying mattered or not to him, he used it as a lifeline. This article was going to make him big bucks.

"C'mon, Rika!" Ryo whispered. "I'll treat you to lunch later!"

Rika was caving. But she couldn't help wondering why he was doing this. What was in it for him?

"Only if you explain this later," she whispered back.

"Done." he confirmed, still whispering.

"Okay, fine. I'll take a few pictures with Ryo." Rika said, glaring icily at the photographer. "But if any rumours start about us being a couple, I'll sue you for all you've got."

'Fine by me..' the photographer thought. 'By the time I sell this shot, I'll be so rich you could sue me a dozen times over!'

"So, umm.. what exactly do you want us to do?" Ryo asked, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly.

"Well.. if you could just put your arms around Mrs. Nonaka's waist…"

Rika glared at the photographer, then at Ryo. (A/N: this girl does A LOT of glaring) Ryo slipped his arms around her waist, and pulled her closer to him. "Lunch. Whatever you want." he reminded her.

And so Rika put up with the pictures, and even cooperated so far as to put a hand on Ryo's shoulder. She didn't want to admit it, but his strong arms were comforting. She didn't even notice herself relaxing into his embrace.

'This is actually kinda.. nice..' she thought. Then she stopped herself. 'No, nothing that involves Ryo Akiyama is nice. I did not just think that. But.. I do feel kinda.. calm and even a bit happy… this feels so… just so right.' Then she mentally smacked herself. 'Rika Nonaka, there is no way you're allowed to fall for Akiyama. It'd all turn bad, and anyways, as if you have a chance.'

xX.X.Xx

"There are always new evil digimon in the digital world, Alice. The sovereigns can handle them." Henry said calmly.

"That's the thing though," Alice replied, her fingers dancing across the keyboard. "The sovereigns know this digimon is there, but they don't know WHERE it is, and so far no matter how many other digimon see it, they can't seem to locate it. Also, they think it might have an actual tamer."

"A tamer? But wouldn't we know if another human accessed the digital world?"

"Hypnos hasn't really detected anything. But then again, they can't exactly follow everything that happens in the digital world, can they?"

"I guess not.. do they have any idea what level this digimon's at?"

"So far, they think it's at around an ultimate level. So if there is a tamer, he or she hasn't biomerged. Yet."

Henry looked thoughtful. "Well, if the sovereigns think it's dangerous, maybe Suzie, Ai and Mako should stay out of the digital world till this gets cleared up." He wrapped his arms around Alice's waist again. "Speaking of the digital world…" he said coyly. "Takato's planning another camping trip with the tamers, and I was wondering if you wanted to come too. You could really meet everyone, and we could tell them about, well, _us_."

Alice leaned into his embrace. "I dunno, Henry.. the last time I was in the digital world was when Dobermon was still… here." Her eyes were sad. Henry nuzzled her neck.

"I know you still really miss him, but.. maybe this could be fun. I know I wouldn't have any fun if I was stuck there without you, thinking about you all alone…"

Alice smiled slightly. "I guess I could.. but what if the other tamers don't want me there?"

Henry gave her a reassuring smile. "They'll be happy to have someone along for the trip. Espescially Jeri, since her and Rika are the only girls."

"Then I'll come. I guess I do need something to do…"

"Great." Henry said happily, before kissing her sweetly.

xX.X.Xx

Takato and Jeri were up in Takato's room packing for the camping trip.

"Do you think I'll need a jacket?" Takato asked while rummaging through his closet.

"Hmm.. well, you never know in the digital world." Jeri replied from her position on his bed.

The two had been dating since a few months after the D-Reaper incident. They were practically inseparable. Takato added a jacket to his knapsack.

Just then, his phone rang. His parents had let him get his own phone line, since his calls with Jeri had always been tying up the bakery phone.

"Hello? Takato speaking."

"Hello Takato. This is Yamaki." A voice spoke through the receiver.

"Hi Yamaki. Is this about our trip to the digital world?" Takato asked, hoping nothing had happened to cancel their trip.

"Yes, I guess it is."

Takato's heart sank. "Oh.. what's happened?"

"Well, our sources have detected another evil digimon.." Yamaki explained pretty much everything that Alice had told Henry.

"That shouldn't be too much of a problem," Takato said confidently. "We can handle it, no sweat!"

"Well, I guess you could, since you did take down the D-Reaper.. but if anything goes wrong, you're all coming right back here. We're responsible to you, and we don't want anything bad happening."

"Great. So the trip's still on for tomorrow?"

"Well actually, I was thinking that since we have a good connection up and running right now, we could maybe leave in a few hours?"

"A few hours? Okay, sounds good. I'm pretty sure that Rika's photo shoot-thing is done by now," Takato replied, checking his watch. "I'll just call the others, and we'll be over by 5, okay?"

"Great. See you then" Yamaki hung up.

Takato turned to Jeri. "Well, it seems we're needed in the digital world again."

xX.X.Xx

All the tamers, minus Ryo and Rika were assembled at Takato's house. He had called them there to explain about the new digimon and about them needing to get to the digital world.

"I just can't get a hold of Rika or Ryo." He told them. Does anyone know where they'd be?"

"Hmm.. maybe Rika was hungry after her photo shoot. Knowing her, she'd probably have gone to her favourite restaurant for something to eat." Henry replied. "As for Ryo, I have no idea."

"Okay then.." Takato said, thinking. "Well, Jeri and I will go find Rika, and the rest of you should get home and pack."

xX.X.Xx

Rika was sitting at a table in her favourite restaurant. Ryo was sitting across from her. He'd promised her lunch, and she intended to make him keep that promise. He'd also promised to explain what he was thinking at the photo shoot.

"So, Akiyama," Rika said after she'd ordered. "Explain to me what was going on in that messed-up head of yours at the photo shoot, like you said you would."

Ryo looked at his food. 'Why's he doing that?' Rika thought. 'Wait.. why's he blushing?? He _does_ look sorta cute when he blushes.. sorta.. No! Stop thinking those thoughts! YOU ARE NOT FALLING FOR AKIYAMA!' Then she realized that Ryo was looking at her.

"Rika… I.. well.. I guess why I did that was cuz I…" Ryo started. But then Rika heard someone shouting her name.

"Rika! Rika, over here!" the person who was shouting was Jeri, who Rika saw across the street with Takato.

"What's Jeri doing here?" She wondered aloud. 'and why did she have to come right when he was about to tell me something that seemed important??'

Jeri ran over, pulling Takato with her by the hand. "Rika! I'm glad we found you. Oh! And Ryo's here too!" Then her expression changed. "Were you two on a date??" she asked slyly.

"NO! Anyways, it's a long story. What are you doing here?" Rika said, turning a slight shade of pink at the mention of the word "Date".

"Well, Yamaki called and told us that there's a new digimon on the loose in the digital world.." Jeri started.

Takato glanced at his watch. "We'll explain on the way to Hypnos. We have to be there in 30 minutes! I hope you two are packed!" he said, glancing at Ryo and Rika. "We can stop by your houses on the way there."

xX.X.Xx

The golden-braided girl looked towards the sky. "Well, Kitsumon, I think we're even more lost than we originally were."

A tall, foxlike and winged digimon stood beside her. "This can't be good…" she said, noticing a flock of ragged, black digimon coming towards them.

"Awwww… we just finished with another pack of those Mortitiamon… not AGAIN.." the girl whined. "When will the help come?"

(A/N: Well, here's the first chapter!

Btw, would someone do me a favour and explain to me what a muse is? I can't seem to figure it out…

Etheron: Please review:D


	3. Chapter 3

Yay! Chap. 3 is finally up!

Thx a lot 4 the reviews, and for explaining 2 me wut a muse is! (I'd thank you specifically if I knew ur name.. unless ur name is Anon ()… )

x.X.X.x

"Alright, is everyone packed?" Takato addressed the group. All the tamers were assembled outside Hypnos, ready to go to the digital world.

There was a collective "Yes" from the tamers, and they went in. As Henry had wished, Suzie, Ai and Mako hadn't been allowed to come, because of the possibility of a dangerous digimon.

"Good, you're all here on time," Yamaki greeted them in the lobby. "Everything's ready upstairs, so go ahead in."

The tamers proceeded up to where the new arc was waiting. All eight of them loaded their bags and tents in, and climbed in themselves.

"Here's another communication device. This one should be much better than the old one." Yamaki handed Takato an object resembling the old communicator from their first trip to the digital world. "I know you haven't had to take one on any of your other trips, but since we aren't too sure what to make of this new digimon, we figured it'd be a lot safer."

Takato nodded. "We're planning on being gone for up to two weeks. We'll contact you when we're ready to be picked up, okay?"

Yamaki nodded in return. Then he started up the ark.

x.X.X.x

The pigtailed girl looked up towards the sky from her position on a rock, hearing something. Her eyes widened.

"Well, Kitsumon, would you look at that." She said to her digimon partner. "It looks like they're sending some help after all. Or maybe not.. maybe this is all just some sort of crazy hallucination…" she shrugged. "Well, whatever it is, I think we should check it out."

She jumped off her rock and ran over to the four-legged digimon. "C'mon Kitsumon, we'd better get moving!" she said cheerfully, climbing onto the creature's back.

"Whatever you say, Kat…" replied Kitsumon. And then she took off across the desert.

x.X.X.x

"Well, the digital world still looks the same.." Kazu said.

Ever since their first visit, the world hadn't changed a bit. They still saw the barren, rocky desert ahead of them, and there were still a few data streams, though not nearly as many as before.

"I guess we should set up camp, since it's going to get dark soon." Takato started unloading their bags from the ark.

Soon they were trying to find a good spot to pitch their tents. Eventually they settled on an area shielded by large rocks.

"So who's sharing a tent with who?" Kenta asked, sorting through their 6 tents. "I guess four of us will have to share, since two of these tents are pretty big, and the others seem to be one-person tents."

"Jeri and I will share one," Rika said.

Jeri walked over to where Alice and Henry were standing. "Hey Alice, wanna share with us?" she asked cheerfully.

Alice smiled shyly and nodded. "Sure, that'd be great."

"See, I told you Jeri would be glad to have another girl around." Henry whispered in her ear.

"So that leaves us with an equal amount of people and tents." Takato stated.

The girls set up their tent, and the boys set up all of theirs.

"Wait, where are the digimon?" Henry asked, looking around. As if on cue, a long eared white-and-green digimon popped up from behind a rock.

"Henry!" Terriermon greeted, jumping to his usual perch on Henry's head. "I knew you'd be coming soon!"

He was followed closely by Guilmon and Calumon. "Guilmon!" Takato cried happily. Calumon jumped into Jeri's arms.

"Hiya Jeri! Did you bring me some creampuffs?" he said perkily.

"Sure we did. And we brought you some bread, Guilmon." Jeri smiled.

"Is it Guilmon bread, Takato-mon?"

Rika turned around to see Renemon. She greeted the fox digimon. The other tamers were being reunited with their digimon.

"How've you been, Renemon?" she asked the golden fox.

"I've been alright." She replied. Then she moved closer to Rika. "I assume you've heard of this new digimon?" she asked quietly.

"Yes, what about it?" Rika replied, sensing that this was important.

"This isn't your average digimon that can be destroyed in a single fight, like the Devas, or even the D-Reaper. It's not that it's extremely powerful- though it's power level are quite high- but there's something about it. I have a feeling we should watch our backs, and keep a close eye on everyone. It wouldn't be a good idea to split up. From what I've heard, this digimon can posses you, if you're in a state of despair, or another strong, over-powering emotion." Rika nodded to what her digimon was telling her. "Also, there are new types of digimon appearing. They're strange. When you destroy them, they don't turn to data like any other digimon. They're just.. gone."

"Have you seen these new digimon?" Rika asked.

"I've never seen the one controlling it all, but I have seen the new ones. They're not very powerful, but they usually travel in flocks. From what I've heard, they're called 'Mortitiamon'".

"Mortitiamon.." Rika tried the word. "Well, we'll have to keep our eyes open, then."

(A/N: 'Mortitiamon' is pronounced MORE-TI-TEE-YA-mon, not like Mortitia from the Adams family.. XD)

Henry remembered something while he was watching everyone else being reunited with their digimon. He remembered Alice didn't have a digimon, that Dobermon is dead. Henry looked around for the blonde girl. He spotted her standing alone, away from the group looking out towards the desert.

"Hey Terriermon, Jeri has some creampuffs. Why don't you go get some?" he addressed the rabbit-like digimon.

"Creampuffs? I'm gone! See ya, Henry!" Terriermon said happily, jumping off the grey-eyed boy's shoulder. Henry walked over to where Alice was standing.

"Hey," he said, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind. "Are you alright?"

Alice leaned into him. "I dunno. I think I'm glad I'm here though. It's sort of helping me come to terms with.. what happened."

Henry let his head rest on her shoulder. "I'm sorry I made you come. It was pretty selfish of me."

Alice cuddled up to him even more. "No it wasn't. You were doing it for my own good. Besides, I'm happy being here with you. More than happy." She whispered, turning around to face him and kissing him gently. Henry smiled and kissed her back.

The two didn't think that anyone would notice, with them being so busy with their digimon. But of course, they'd underestimated Jeri and Rika, who were both very observant. Takato, Kazu, Kenta and Ryo didn't notice a thing, though.

And then everything went dark.

"Aww, I hate when this happens!" Kazu whined.

"I'm still not used to it, no matter how many times we visit." Kenta agreed.

Ryo shrugged. "It all became normal to me after a few months when I was stuck here."

"Well aren't you just Mister Perfect." Rika grumbled. "I can hardly see a thing."

They all made their way back to their tents in the dark, and said goodnight.

Rika, Jeri and Alice were getting changed in their tent.

"So how long have you and Henry been together, Alice?" Rika asked casually.

Alice blushed bright red, though nobody could really see it in the light coming from their flashlights. "Wha—How did you know?" she asked.

"Well, considering the way you two were making out just a little while ago, we kinda assumed you had to be going out." Jeri smiled.

"Oh.. you saw that?" Alice's blush was growing brighter.

"Yea. But don't worry, the guys didn't see a thing. They're too dense." Rika shrugged.

Alice calmed down a bit. "Well, Henry and I have been seeing each other since.. I guess a few months after the D-Reaper. I was pretty depressed, because of what happened to Dobermon. My granddad was really worried about me. Since I didn't really have any friends, he decided to call a man he worked with at Hypnos, who had a son my age. Turns out that it was Henry's father Janyu who he called. Henry was really understanding, since all of you had been separated from your digimon too. He was comforting, and listened to me when I wanted to talk about Dobermon. We started working on a way back to the digital world, with the help of my grandfather and Mr.Wong, so we were together more and more. And then he sorta.. asked me out, I guess."

Jeri said "Awwwwww" and Rika cracked a smile.

"So I figure you're going out with Takato, huh Jeri?" Alice asked, tactfully changing the subject.

Jeri smiled and nodded, blushing a little.

"And you, Rika?" Alice turned towards the redhead. "Are you and that guy Ryo together?"

Rika looked taken aback. She shook her head vigorously. "No way I'm going out with HIM." she almost shouted.

"Oh, I just sorta heard that-" Alice stopped herself there, not wanting to anger Rika even more. "Maybe I misheard something.."

What she had heard, or rather saw, was an instant messenger conversation between Henry, Jeri and Takato about how Rika and Ryo seemed to like eachother, but were denying their feelings. But she wasn't about to say anything.

Rika shrugged. "It's okay. It's not as if you knew, anyways." Then she got up. "I think I'm gonna take a quick walk with Renemon before bed. I'll be back soon."

Luckily nobody had noticed her blushing when Alice had brought up her and Ryo going out.

x.X.X.x

Kenta was sitting on a rock, a ways from the tents. He and Marineangemon had first watch. He didn't really see why they were keeping watch, since they did have some pretty powerful digimon on their side, and anyways, Renemon and Cyberdramon always seemed to be alert, even when they were sleeping. And Guilmon's nose could smell enemies coming from miles away. But he figured they thought it better to be safe than sorry.

What he didn't understand was why HE was the one keeping them safe, if it hadn't been his idea.

He wasn't expecting anything to actually happen, so he was taken by surprise when Marineangemon nudged him.

"Somebody there!" he chirped in his fragmented speech.

Kenta looked up, but couldn't see anything. But then he heard something.

"Kitsumon, do you think they'd be around here? That thing looked like it landed somewhere around here.. so they'd be here, right?" a girl's voice spoke from the dark. By the sound of it, she wasn't too far away.

"Who's there?" Kenta called out. "I warn you, my digimon's a mega!"

"Yea well.." the voice called back. "Umm…" then the voice dropped to a whisper. "Kitsumon, what should I say?"

Another voice, this one deeper and calmer, spoke. "We're not afraid of you or your digimon. If we have to, we will fight you."

"Yea! Wait.. what if his digimon's actually a mega?" the girl's voice dropped to a whisper again.

Kenta then remember that he had his d-arc with him, and he could see this girl's digimon's stats. He pulled out the device, and the illuminated screen showed a large dog-like digimon on four legs. She was a deep purple, but the bottom half of her face was white. The top half was covered with what appeared to be a metal helmet, which went from the end of her snout to the back of her head. Bright green wings sprouted out her back, and her tail was long and thin, with a large tuft of white fur at the end. There were metal X's on the knees of her forelegs, and her feet were large and clawed. "Kitsumon," Kenta read. "Champion level. Beast Digimon."

He looked up to see the girl's face illuminate by her own d-arc. She had gold-blonde hair tied into short braids and green-blue eyes. She looked to be about his age. She was looking straight back at him.

Her mouth opened slightly, as if she was about to speak. Then she closed it. The she gasped, ran towards him and threw her arms around him.

"You're one of those tamers! You can help me get home, can't you?" she cried happily.

Kenta didn't know what to do. Should he return the hug? Or would that seem too weird. Luckily, his inner debate was interrupted when she pulled away, and smiled at him.

"I saw you on tv, that time when that D-Reaper thing attacked Japan." She said cheerfully. "There are others with you, right? I kinda have this little dilemma that I need some help with.."

Kenta just nodded.

"So, um.. I guess their asleep.. I hope I'm not causing trouble.." The girl became shy.

"Don't worry, they won't mind being woken up." Kenta said. 'This is too strange for them to mind. Since when can other people get into the digital world?'

"Oh, I'm Kat, by the way. Kat Etherson." She smiled, holding her hand out for him to shake.

"Kenta Kitagawa." He shook her hand. Kenta couldn't help but feel like he'd heard her name somewhere.

"Guys, wake up!" he called towards the camp. "There's a girl here who need our help!"

x.X.X.x

Meanwhile…

Rika didn't have anywhere specific that she needed to go. She just let her feet do the walking, while she was lost in thought.

How did she feel about Ryo? And why had Alice thought they were going out? Was there something she didn't know about?

'What's wrong with me?' She thought. 'Why am I getting so worked up about something that Akiyama did? It's not as if I'm madly in love with him. But.. I guess he is kind of cute.. and he does have really nice eyes- No, I can't think that way! He's just a friend. He doesn't like you like that! Sure, he jokes around a lot about that stuff, but it doesn't mean anything… does it?'

While Rika was caught up in her mental battle, she didn't really notice where her feet were taking her. That is, she didn't notice until they stopped right in front of a tent. Ryo's tent. Then she remembered that he had never told her why he bribed her into doing those.. poses during the photo shoot.

'A promise is a promise, and I'm not going to let him off that easily' she thought.

"Ryo, are you awake?" Rika whispered, kneeling down by the door of his tent.

"Rika, is that you?" it was Ryo's tent, alright. "Come in. What are you doing up so late?"

Rika unzipped the tent flap and crawled in. She blushed when she noticed Ryo didn't have a shirt on. When she finally managed to pull her eyes away from his tan, muscular chest, she replied. "I couldn't sleep, so I went for a walk. Then I remembered that you still haven't told me why you made me do those things during the photo shoot. I'm not letting you get away that easily."

Ryo didn't meet her gaze. "Yea, I guess I do owe you an explanation.." he murmured.

"Well I don't have all night!" Rika said, annoyed. "Hurry up!"

Ryo looked up. "Okay, well.. here goes nothing." He began. "Rika, I.. well, I.."

He was interrupted by a shout from outside.

"Guys, wake up!" it was Kenta's voice.

"We'd better go see what he wants," Ryo said. He seemed pretty glad to have an excuse not to continue his explanation.

Both of them got up, and left the tent. Rika silently cursed Kenta.

x.X.X.x

(A/N:

Yay! First OC has been introduced! I made up Kitsumon :D

Review please!


	4. Chapter 4

Well, here's chappie 3 :3

Arg.. I have exams.. flops on keyboard

x.X.X.x

The tamers rushed out of their tents when they heard Kenta calling.

"What is it, Kenta? A digimon?" Takato asked, still half asleep.

Then they noticed the pigtailed girl, Kat standing shyly beside Kenta.

"Hey, who's she?" asked Ryo. "And who's her digimon?" he asked again, noticing the dog-like Kitsumon.

Kat smiled. "My name's Katherine Etherson. Call me Kat." she gestured to her digimon. "And she's Kitsumon. I guess you could say she's my partner."

"So.. What are you doing here?" asked Takato, still not quite awake.

"Well, from what I can remember, I was just checking my email and suddenly, I was here. And Kitsumon (well, she was in her rookie form then, but..) was beside me. And I had this." Kat replied, holding up a blue-green d-arc.

"I guess that means you're a tamer." Rika said, slightly annoyed to have been interrupted AGAIN.

Kat nodded. "But the only problem is, I don't really know how to get back home. My family's probably pretty worried."

"Well, Yamaki sends an ark for us to get home. It'll take us back to West Shinjuku." Henry said. "Where are you from, anyways? You don't look Japanese." He asked Kat.

"I'm from Canada. I've never been to Japan. Maybe I could leave with you guys, and then I'll just catch a flight home!" she said happily.

"Yea, that'd be a good plan." Jeri smiled, glad to have another girl on the team. "For now you can stay with us. We'll be camping out here for a little while longer."

Kat nodded. "Thanks. That'd be great… It's just that.. no, never mind. It's nothing." She smiled again.

"Umm, can we go back to bed now?" Kazu asked impatiently. "We can talk about this tomorrow."

"But where's Kat gonna sleep?" asked Alice.

"I have an idea," Takato said. "Kazu will share my tent, since it's pretty big, and Kat can have Kazu's tent."

"Sounds good. Let's go back to bed." Ryo yawned.

x.X.X.x

The tamers woke up to find something very surprising. A gold dog-like digimon was sitting with Alice outside their tents.

When Henry climbed out of his tent, he was greated by Alice, who threw herself into his arms.

"Hey.. this is new. What's up?" Henry said, wrapping his arms around her waist.

Alice smiled happily. (A/N: I kno, very unAlice-like, but you'll get it..) "Henry! Dobermon's back! Well, he's Labramon for now, but it's still my Dobermon!"

Henry looked over Alice's head to see Labramon. (A/N: yea, I kno Dobermon doesn't really actually digivolve from Labramon, but in other fanfics I've seen it be done, and it seemed to work..)

"The sovereign collected what remained of my data off of Renamon, Guilmon, Terriermon and Cyberdramon, and eventually managed to recreate me, making me into a digi-egg again." Barked the gold-colored digimon.

Alice ran over to Labramon. "I missed you so much.." she hugged the dog digimon tightly.

The rest of the tamers stepped out of their tents.

"So that means we have another digimon on our side." Takato said. "That's pretty good. Now we're even for digimon per tamer.. though I guess that Calumon isn't really a digimon, but still.." he trailed off when he realized something was distracting the others.

"What are those?" Rika asked, pointing to what at first appeared to be a cloud of undulating blackness in the distance, and was quickly getting closer. It seemed to be a flock of black cloaked digimon.

"Not again…." Kat moaned.

"What do you mean, not again?" Jeri asked her.

"I've had to fight a lot of Mortitiamon before I met you guys. Looks like they're back…"

"Don't worry." Rika said calmly. "We can handle this."

Henry pulled out his d-arc. "Mortitiamon. Champion level virus-type digimon. Special attacks: Tri-claw of Despair and Crimson Destruction. This isn't good.. their stats are off the chart!"

"Don't worry. They're only champion level. We can take 'em" Kazu said lazily.

The flock of black digimon were very close to them now. The Mortitiamon were had huge ragged black cloaks covering their bodies and long spindly necks sprouting topped with round heads. They didn't seem to have any eyes, just wide jagged mouths that stretched across their faces. Their long arms nearly touched the ground and their hands were also round with three long blade-like claws. They surrounded the tamers, not leaving a single opening.

"Ready?" Takato addressed the tamers.

There was a collective nod in response. Then they all shouted "Digi-modify! Digivolution activate!"

Guilmon, Terriermon, and Renamon digivolved to Growlmon, Gargomon and Kyubimon. Guardromon and Marineangemon stood (or floated) ready to fight.

"Ready Kitsumon?" Kat addressed her digimon. The purple dog nodded.

"Henry, I don't think Labramon's strong enough to fight yet!" Alice called.

Gargomon jumped in front of the blonde girl and her partner. "I've gotcha covered."

The tamers stood in a circle facing outwards with Jeri, Calumon, Alice and Labramon in the middle.

"Attack!" Takato called.

"Fox Tail Inferno!"

"Desolation Claw!"

"Bunny Pummel!"

"Pyro Blaster!"

"Guardian Barrage!"

"Kahuna Waves!"

"Twin-tail blade!" Kitsumon attacked, her tail slashing across twice to make an emerald green 'X'.

Their attacks were responded to with swinging blades and blasts of blood-red. Some of the evil digimon were destroyed, but no matter how many Mortitiamon they defeated, there were always more.

"It's no use, we're out numbered!" Henry shouted to the others.

"Well, I guess we'll have to biomerge!" Ryo responded.

Kat looked frightened. "Don't biomerge. Whatever you do, just don't do it!"

The tamers shot Kat a confused look. "Why can't we?" asked Takato.

"It's a long story. I'll explain later. But for now, just don't!"

"Well we can at least Matrix Digivolve them!" Henry responded.

"Right!" And with a shout of "Digi-modify! Matrix Digivolution activate!" from the tamers, the champion digimon digivolved into their ultimate forms.

"Kitsumon! Digivolve!" Kat called to her digimon, holding out her d-arc.

"I'm ready." Kitsumon replied. Then a light enveloped her, and she was transformed.

"Kitsumon digivolve to.. Faynamon!" Her ultimate for was a human-like digimon, with two iridescent green wings, clawed feet and purple gloves. Her body was covered with a purple sleeveless leotard, and a tear-shaped hole opened at her stomach. She had the same X-shaped pieces on her knees, and the pointy-eared helmet covered half her head, curving up at the eyes but coming back down across her nose. Two gold rings rested on her upper arms, and she had the same long tail as Kitsumon, bound into a thin strand with a ribbon and bushy at the end.

Kazu had gotten Guardromon to digivolve into Andromon. Now it was 6 ultimates and 1 mega against an uncountable amount of Champions.

The ultimate level digimon attacked.

Just as they were getting the number of Mortitiamon down to a manageable amount, something very unexpected happened.

The Mortitiamon suddenly seemed to melt into pools of black oily slime. There were about 10 puddles in total.

"Well, I guess we win." Rapidmon said. Not once had he or Henry left their position in front of Alice and Labramon.

"I wouldn't be so sure!" Henry replied, noticing the puddles beginning to bubble. "Look at what's happening!"

The black liquid was beginning to take shape. Slowly, 10 huge round head rose up, followed by long necks and lean bodies. They ressembled the Mortitiamon, but thousands of times larger. When the digimon had finally completely emerged, they were gigantic. The 10 of them had long, thin arms tipped with scythe-like blades that swung viciously at their sides. Their heads sprouted black hair, some of it that covered their faces. And their faces were the most terrifying part. Their mouths were like the ones of the Mortitiamon, long and jagged, but they had eyes. Huge yellow eyes with two red pupils in each orb stared creepily back at the tamers.

Rika pulled out her D-arc. "They're Sayonamon, the ultimate form of Mortitiamon. Special Attacks: Scythe Storm and Twin-Point Curse."

The Sayonamon threw back their pale heads and cackled evilly.

"There are 10 of them, and 7 of us." Ryo said. "The odds aren't really in our favour!"

Never the less, the tamers kept attacking.

They managed to take down 3 of the Sayonamon, before the digimon started to get tired.

"Henry, I can't keep this up much longer.." moaned Rapidmon.

"Scythe Storm!" the Sayonamon shrieked in unison, swinging their arms wildly. The result was crimson jets of light shooting everywhere.

One of the red blasts hit Andromon, who de-digivolved to Guardromon. Another narrowly missed Wargrowlmon and Marineangemon.

"We're getting nowhere!" Takato called to the tamers. "We'll either have to retreat, or Biomerge!"

"I told you!" Kat yelled back. "You CAN'T Biomerge around these digimon! It's dangerous!"

"I don't care!" Ryo replied. "We've got to DO something!" he pulled out his d-arc. "Ready, Cyberdramon?"

Rika pulled out hers, too. "I'm right behind you, Ryo. Let's go, Renamon!"

They were both deaf to Kat's warning shouts.

"Renamon biomerge to.. Sakuyamon!"

"Cyberdramon biomerge to.. Justimon!"

"NO!" Kat called after them, as they charged towards the Sayonamon.

"Amethyst Gale!" Sakuyamon attacked.

"Justice Kick!"

They managed to destroy another two of the Sayonamon.

Kenta moved towards Kat. "What's wrong with them biomerging around the Sayonamon?" he asked. "Nothing's happened yet."

Kat was on her knees. She looked up at Kenta, her eyes wide with fear. "Keyword there is 'Yet'." She looked at the ground. "I should have explained. Then maybe I could've stopped them…" her voice trailed off.

Kenta knelt beside her. "You wouldn't've been able to stop them anyways." He told her reassuringly. "They'll fight anything that puts us in danger no matter what the circumstances are. But what's wrong with biomerging?"

"The Sayonamon have this power.. well, not just the Sayonamon, but the Mortitiamon and especially their Mega form.. they all have this power that gets inside your head. They usually can't do it when you aren't biomerged, but when you are, the state of your mind is just.. just right for them." Kat seemed to shrink as she spoke. "The fact that you feel so.. I don't know, strong, safe, almost eager to fight and test your power… it unlocks something for them. And then they get inside of your head. And it's all downhill from there."

Kenta looked at her, slightly confused. "How do you know?"

"Bad experience…" Kat said shakily.

Both of them looked back up to watch Sakuyamon and Justimon. Another three Sayonamon were destroyed. Then suddenly, the remaining two's mouths split opening.

"Black Ribbon Suffocation!" they screeched, and dozens of long black ribbons spewed from their open mouths.

Kat moaned and hid her face.

"What's happening?" Rika screamed as the ribbons began to wrap themselves around her. No matter how many she tried to fight off, more came. Soon, her whole body was wrapped in them.

The same happened to Ryo. Then suddenly, both went limp.

"We've got to DO something!" Kat screamed. "Just get them out of there! Don't let them stay wrapped in the ribbons!" by now she was frantic. "Faynamon! Please help them!"

"She's right!" Henry said. "We have to help Ryo and Rika!"

The digimon who could still fight attacked the Sayonamon, and the ribbons containing Sakuyamon and Justimon.

"Wing Blade!" Faynamon attacked the ribbons holding Sakuyamon, cutting them. She dropped towards the ground, the remaining ribbons around her falling away.

Wargrowlmon cut the ones around Justimon, and he too began falling.

The Sayonamon roared in anger. "Twin-Point Curse!" The two pupils in their eyes spun wildly, and deep red beams began shooting at the digimon.

Sakuyamon had separated back into Renamon and Rika as she plummeted towards the ground. Justimon was still in his mega form.

"Someone has to catch them!" Jeri called from her position with Alice, Labramon and Calumon.

Faynamon, Wargrowlmon and Rapidmon had been hit by the Sayonamon's attacks. The three of them were already de-digivolving.

"We can't just let them fall!" Alice shouted to the other tamers. But there wasn't anything else left to do.

Luckily Renamon came to, and managed to grab Rika before they hit the ground. At the same time that she regained consciousness, the Sayonamon launched another attack.

"Scythe Storm!" they cried, swinging their bladed arms wildly once again.

Renamon used what little strength she had in her to dodge the attacks. Rika hung limply in her arms, her eyes fluttering open.

"Renamon?" she muttered, sitting up slightly. "What happened?"

Rika looked around to see Justimon falling. Then, to her horror, one of the Sayonamon's blades swung and hit him in the back, causing him to separate into Monodramon and Ryo.

"Twin-Point Curse!" the lasers were aimed directly at the two of them.

Rika watched in shock as one of the red beams hit Ryo in the chest, knocking him and Monodramon into the earth. Only one thought was going through her head.

They had hit Ryo.

Ryo, who had always frustrated her. He had annoyed her so much that once, she had ran off. But deep down, he wasn't so bad…

Ryo, who had saved Kyubimon the first time they had met. But she could've handled that herself. Never the less, she still was a bit grateful. But only a little bit.

Ryo, who had pulled her into the crack in the rock when she was trying bravely, but stupidly to fight the chaos, and had almost been destroyed.

Ryo, who had shouted her name over and over when she had taken that leap of faith into the chaos to become Sakuyamon for the first time.

Ryo, who she had trusted with all her power during the fight against the D-Reaper.

Ryo, who always had a complement for her, no matter how mean she was to him.

"RYO!!" she screamed as he hit the ground with a sickening _thunk_.

As soon as Renamon touched the ground, Rika jumped out of her arms to run over to where Ryo had fallen.

She knelt beside him. He was badly burnt across his chest. The smell of his burnt flesh stung her nostrils.

"Ryo, say something!" she said, holding onto his shoulders. "You're alright, aren't you? You've got to be alright!"

Ryo's eyes slowly opening a little. "Hey Wildcat.." he whispered weakly. "I'll be fine, so don't cry… You're always prettier when you smile." his eyes closed, and he lost consciousness.

x.X.X.x

(A/N: Well THAT was a long chappie.. 8 whole pages! I'm proud… :D

Arg.. i have too many exams… so updating might not be so regular. PS: I got the name Sayonamon from a legend about La Sayona, a lady who killed her husband, child and mother and became a freaky-looking ghost. Cool, huh? I just thought it suited the image I was going for.

Review pleas:3


	5. Chapter 5

A/N: Yay! Here comes chappie 5!

Exams are still on.. --;

PS: thanks soooo much for the reviews! I never knew reviewers were so sympathetic:3

And also, it seems like some of you reviewers think i actually KILLED Ryo! Just to make sure we're on the same frequency, Ryo's still alive and well. He just got knocked out, that's all. On with the Fic!

x.X.X.x

Rika was kneeling beside Ryo as the other tamers rushed over.

"Is Ryo okay?" Jeri gasped.

"It looks like he's been burnt pretty badly," Henry said.

"NOT RYO!" Kazu cried. "NOT THE DIGIMON KING!!"

Alice shot him an annoyed look. "Um, he's still breathing, Kazu. He's going to be fine, he's just a little burnt."

For a reason unknown to the tamers, Kat ran over to Rika and was examining the back of her neck.

"Uh, Kat, can I ask what you're doing?" Rika asked skeptically.

Kat sighed with relief. "You're okay. They didn't mark you, so you're okay."

"Mark me? What do you mean?"

Kat looked at the ground. "I should've told you this before..." then she inhaled deeply, preparing for a long talk. "You got lucky, and excaped the Sayonamon before they could mark you. When a Sayonamon wraps those ribbon things around you, usually it's trying to do this thing that they do.. Their ribbons burrow into your neck, and suddenly all you can feel is distrust and hate for everyone around you. The hate's so strong that you want to hurt them. Very badly. They can only do this to you when you've biomerged - which is why I told you not to biomerge- because your soul is bonded with the digimon, who's nature is to fight, which amplifies your need to fight those around you... Some times the mark doesn't take effect till later, when you're fully strong again. Sometimes it even works when you're just your normal self, not biomerged or anything. But the reason I was checking your neck is to make sure you weren't marked. If you had been marked by the Sayonamon, there would've been a black thing on the back of your neck, at the part where your neck meets your shoulders. It would look like this-" Kat drew a strange design in the dirt, a crescent-moon shape with a lign through the two points and dots on either side of the line. "That's the mark of the Sayonamon. And that pretty much sums it up..." Kat's eyes wandered back to the ground.

"And.. How do you know this?" Takato asked.

"I've.. I've seen it happen." Kat's eyes were tearing up.

"To who? What happened next?" Kazu pressed.

Kat paled, and hugged her knees against her chest. "Then... then..."

"Kazu, can't you see she doesn't want to talk about it?" Kenta asked angrily. He knelt down beside Kat and put a hand on her shoulder. "It's alright. You don't have to say anymore. We can talk later, okay?" he said gently.

Kat nodded, and Kazu looked shocked. Kenta had never contradicted him like that.

Then Kat's eyes snapped back up. "Wait, is Ryo marked?" she asked.

Rika's eyes immediately returned to the unconscious lying infront of her. She gently lifted up his head, and looked at the back of his neck.

"No, there's nothing there." she said, relieved. "But what are we going to do about his burns? Does anyone have bandages?"

"It's no problem," Kenta said. "Marineangemon can help. Just take off Ryo's shirt so we can have a clear look at the wound."

Rika looked at Kenta, blushing a little. "Ta-take off his shirt? Is that really necessary?"

"Well, unless you want only the exposed part of the wound to heal. Even though there's a hole where the laser burnt through, there's probably a less intense burn around the edges. We won't really be able to heal that part if we can't see it, will we?"

"Kenta, since when do you know so much about burns and stuff?" Jeri asked suspisciously.

Kenta looked blank. "I honestly don't know.. now just hurry up and remove the shirt."

Rika gently remove Ryo's shirt, a blush spreading across her cheeks. Even though his chest was completely burnt, he was still something to look at. Rika looked away, embarrassed.

The little pink digimon flew over to Ryo. "Puu!" he chirped happily, sending a wave of heart shaped bubbles towards Ryo's burnt chest. The burns slowly faded, leaving them just as red marks.

"That's about all he can do after that fight." Kenta said. "It should take away most of the pain, and help it heal faster. It'll still hurt Ryo to sit up and stuff like that, though."

Ryo's facial expression seemed to relax, and his breathing deepened. He seemed to be sleeping peacefully now.

"We should move him to his tent and let him get some rest." Henry said. "Kazu, do you think Guardromon could carry him?"

"Yea, I guess he could." Kazu was still slightly hurt at how Kenta had snapped at him.

The android digimon walked over to Ryo and gently lifted him up. The rest of the tamers followed him back to the campsite.

"Well that was certainly an eventful morning..." Jeri said, her voice heavy with exhaustion.

"You can say that again..." Takato agreed.

"Well that was-"

"Uh, Jeri, that's not exactly what Takato meant..." Alice said, equally tired.

The tamers all flopped down on the ground, some plain lying down and some leaning agains rocks. They were all completely exhausted after the fight with the Sayonamon, and after having all the adrenaline pump through them and suddenly go away.

"Henry?" Terriermon said groggily.

"What is it, Terriermon?"

"I'm hungry..."

"Terriermon, now's not the time..." Henry trailed off when he noticed that the little digimon was asleep.

In fact, most of the digimon were already asleep. "Well that's not surprise.." Takato said sleepily. "After that battle, I'm surprised we aren't out like lights, too." Then he turned his head to find Jeri cuddled against his side, already asleep. "I guess we should get some rest aswell..." he said, slowly drifting off to sleep.

"You guys get some sleep. Labramon and I will keep watch." Alice said, since she wasn't very tired from the fight.

Henry stood up. "I'll keep you company."

"It's alright. You don't have to. Get some sleep.."

Henry smiled. "I'm not that tired. Anyways, I want to." he looked around at the other sleeping tamers. "Hey, where's Rika?"

x.X.X.x

Rika was in Ryo's tent, still kneeling beside the unconscious tamer. She couldn't take her eyes off his burnt chest. 'Why did you have to go and be the hero? Why couldn't we just have listened to Kat, and not have biomerged?' Rika closed her eyes.

She couldn't get the sensation she had felt when the Sayonamon had wrapped their ribbons around her out of her head. It was like she was going back to becoming her old self, the cold, angry Ice Queen that she had been before she had met the tamers. It was like that, but much, much worse. She had felt like she couldn't trust anyone at all, and like all she wanted to do was to hurt them for that reason.

She shuddered. Then her eyes popped open at the sound of movement. Ryo was shifting around slightly in his sleeping bag. He winced in pain, then his eyes opening slightly.

"Hey Wildcat..." he said sleepily. "Why do I hurt so much?" he moved around a bit more, as if trying to find a comfy spot.

Rika gently placed her hand on his bare chest. "Shh. Don't move so much. You were burnt by the Sayonamon, and now you just have to rest."

Ryo looked up at Rika's face. Her eyes were red and puffy, like she had been crying, and her face was still slightly dirty from the battle. Her forehead was creased with worry.

"You should get some sleep, too." he said, putting his hand over hers, which was still on his burn. He gently pulled her down to a lying position beside him.

They lay like that for a moment, in silence, before Ryo spoke.

"Hey Rika, were you worried about me?" he asked.

"Of course I was worried, baka, you fell from practically a 5-storey drop, you got hit in the back by an evil digimon's freaky scythe hand that was swinging around wildly AND you got hit in the chest by a laser! Anyone would be worried." Rika said, slightly defensively.

"Yea, but were you REALLY worried? Like, completely in despair worried?" Ryo asked, the mischievious glint coming back to his eyes.

"I dunno.. Maybe I was," Rika teased right back. "But maybe I wasn't. It might have just been the effects of the Sayonamon's ribbons. They made me feel all angry and full of despair. So it might have just been a but of the leftover feeling."

Ryo turned his head towards the ceiling of the tent. "I felt like that too. The freaky despair stuff. Like I hated everyone around me and I just wanted to fight.. It was weird. And kinda scary."

Rika smirked playfully. "So the legendary tamers was scared of a big scary ultimate-level digimon, huh?"

Her attempted to turn on his side so he could face her, but winced in pain.

"Just stay how you are. Don't try to move or anything, cause it could make your condition even worse." Rika cautioned.

"So you are worried about me." Ryo teased.

"Yea... I guess I am." Rika said, seriously now. Then she turned over to lie on her back. "We should get some rest. Even though it's practically the middle of the day, after that battle we really need to recooperate."

"Y'know, Pumpkin?" Ryo turned his head towards her. "I think you like me."

"Tch.. Yea right, Akiyama, who could ever like you?" Rika said, turning from her position on her side to on her back.

"... umm.. you?"

"Wrong. I don't like you."

"We'll see about that, won't we?" Ryo said, before leaning over and kissing her on the tip of her nose. "G'night, Wildcat."

Rika was speechless. And very red.

x.X.X.x

Terriermon woke up. Who could blame him? He was hungry, and definetly couldn't sleep on an empty stomach. Looking around, he saw most of the other digimon and tamers asleep, even thought it was still around midafternoon. He looked for Henry, and realized that he wasn't among them.

"Well, maybe Henry's keeping watch. Or cooking dinner." the little rabbit digimon said, getting up to look for his tamer. Then he heard something that sounded like people talking, over behing one of the rock formation around the campsite. "He's probably over there." the digimon said to himself, walking over towards the noise.

"Henry...?" he said tentitavely, peering around the rock. Then his eyes widened. 'Henry and that girl who always wears black are kissing! No, scratch that, they're full-on making out!!' he thought, as he ran off to get that girl's digimon.

"Hey, Golden-Dog-mon, wake up!" he said, shaking Labramon. "Our tamers are playing tonsil tennis! You have to see this!"

"Wha..?" Labramon said, slowly sitting up. "What are you talking about? Oh, and my name's Labramon. As in Labrador."

"Labrador..?" Terriermon said, momentarily destracted. "Isn't that some sort of dog? - Well, anyways, come watch!" he chirped happily, grabbing Labramon by the ear and dragging him over to the rock Henry and Alice were behing. "Look."

Both of them peered stealthily over the rock. Alice was perched on Henry's lap, and his arms were entwined around her back.

"Well, it's perfectly normal for them to kiss, since they're a couple and all," said Labramon, as if this was what he was used to every day.

"Wait... Henry's going out with her??" Terriermon exclaimed. He had never heard anything about this! "Since when?"

"Quiet!" Labramon said, pushing him down with a paw. "They're gonna hear us!"

"I think they're a little too occupied to hear us!" Terriermon said. "Since when are they going out?"

Alice broke away from Henry. "Do you hear something?" she asked.

"I think so," Henry said. They both stood up, walking over to where the sound was coming from. Then they saw Terriermon and Labramon crouched behind the rock, one of Labramon's paws clamped over Terriermon's mouth.

"Umm.. what are you two doing?" Alice asked.

"Hey Terriermon..." Henry said, rubbing the back of his head.

Labramon let go of the little digimon. "So when were you planning on telling me about your little girlfriend, huh Henry?" Terriermon asked accusingly.

"Eventually..." Henry said guiltily.

"Well it took you long enough to get one!" Terriermon said, cheerful again. "Oh, and by the way, I'm hungry!"

Alice smiled. "We'll make something to eat."

The four of them walked back towards the tents.

x.X.X.x

Meanwhile, Kenta was lying down with his eyes closed, but he wasn't asleep. In fact, he was barely even tired, since Marineangemon isn't much of a fighter. Sure, he was a little sleepy from all that action, but not sleepy enough to take a nap in the middle of the day.

He sat up and looked around him. Kazu and Guardromon were fast asleep off to his left. Jeri and Takato were snuggled up to his far right, with Guilmon and Calumon dozing a little ways from them. Monodramon and Renamon were outside of Ryo's tent, the dinosaur digimon sleeping and the fox digimon wide awake and standing guard. Terriermon and Labramon were nowhere to be seen, but Kenta figured they were with Henry and Alice, who had agreed to keep watch. Marineangemon was curled up beside him. But where was that new girl, Kat?

Kenta recalled how Kat had looked when they had been talking about the Sayonamon "marking" you. She had looked pale a scared and nervous. And he remembered how she hadn't wanted to talk about seeing what the Sayonamon could do. He decided to go look for her.

Kenta glanced around, finally noticing her perched at the top of a tall rock formation. The rookie form of her digimon, Monamon was asleep at the foot of the rock. She was a human-like digimon that looked alot like Faynamon, except more childish. She wore the same purple sleeveless leotard, X-shaped knee guards and the pointy-eared helmet. Her tail was still long and thin with a bushy part on the end.

Kat noticed Kenta looking, and smiled slightly.

"Hey. Are you gonna come up?"

Kenta nodded, and proceeded to climb up the rock. He got to the top, and sat beside her. He looked over at the girl beside him, noticing how she still looked scared, and almost regretful. "Are you okay?" he asked gently.

Kat shrugged. "I'm just.. worried. I think I'm the one drawing the Mortitiamon to you. They're always following me everywhere, attacking constantly. I... I don't want to cause trouble for you tamers." she said, tears rising to her eyes.

"Don't cry!" Kenta said. The last thing he needed was for her to start crying. He put a comforting arm around her shoulders. "Besides, It's probably not you who attracts these digimon. It's probably just us, since we're tamers and all. Besides, when we're in the Digital world, we seem to attract trouble too. I'm sure we can handle it."

Kat smiled. "Thanks Kenta." she said softly, and leaned against him. Kenta blushed.

Kat took a deep breath. "What I didn't want to say earlier.. It's... it's just that... There's another girl in the digital world." she finally blurted out.

Kenta was surprised. "Who? How do you know?"

Kat looked down. "Her name is Nami. She's my friend. When I first got here, I woke up and she was lying a little ways away from me. We travelled together. Then we were attacked by the Mortitiamon, and they digivolved and... they marked Nami. I was lucky, and escaped. I guess it was because Nami doesn't trust people easily, because of the way she grew up. The last time I saw her, we were both biomerged and she.. she was attacking me. The Sayonamon got to her, and she couldn't break out of it. Monamon managed to de-digivolve us, and we escaped."

"Wow.. that's.." Kenta was speechless (for once). "So she's still here?"

Kat nodded.

"Then we'll save her. Don't worry, we can do it." Kenta reassured her. "Just one question,"

Kat looked up. "What's that?"

"If you're form Canada, how can you speak Japanese so well?"

Kat shook her head. "I only wish I could speak Japanese. It's this thing-" she held up her blue-green d-arc. "That's translating everything I say for you, and what you say for me. I don't really get it myself, but somehow this thing can do it."

"Oh.. that's kinda weird."

Kat nodded, and leaned against him again. "You know, you're pretty good and calming people down."

Kenta's blush deepened.

x.X.X.x

Rika woke up from the very nice dream she had been having. She couldn't really remember what it was about, but she did recall Ryo being in it. 'Wait.. since when is a dream with Ryo in it considered nice?' she thought. 'Rika, you are NOT falling for Ryo. NOT, NOT, NOT, NO-- okay, maybe just a little bit...'

Then she remembered she was in Ryo's tent, and Ryo was hurt. She still had her eyes closed when she felt something on her waist. And then she realized that what her face was pressed against was much too warm to be a pillow. Plus the fact that it had a heartbeat. Rika opened her eyes to find her head burried into the crook of Ryo's neck and his arm draped across her waist. Her hands were on his bare chest, and his face was nuzzled into her hair. It seemed that somehow he had turned on his side during his sleep, and they had gotten into this position.

Well, she couldn't say she didn't like it.

x.X.X.x

(A/N: Well, that was certainly along chapter... longes yet!

R&R please! Ideas are appreciated!


	6. Chapter 6

(A/N: So here's chapter 6!

The reason I took a little longer than normal to update is that I decided to write a quick, fluffy Henry/Alice oneshot. It's called "Dry My Tears". Check it out!

Exams are finally over! celebrates)

Another quick disclaimer: Lunamon and all her digivolutions are not mine. (This includes Dianamon) they belong to Digimon, and the guys who own digimon.. which does not include me.

x.X.X.x

By mid-afternoon the tamers were refreshed. Most of them (save for a few) had had a very relaxing nap, and all of them were now wide awake. Even Ryo was out of his tent, though he was having trouble standing and walking because of his injuries. Now they were all clustered around the fire pit. Henry and Takato had called a meeting.

Takato was the first to speak. "Henry and I have been thinking, and we think that it isn't safe to stay here anymore."

"The Mortitiamon know where we are, and they could easily come back and attack us again. We should move our campsite. Probably to a place that's alot more sheltered and enclosed, so that they'll have trouble digivolving into something as gigantic as the Sayonamon." Henry continued.

"I know just the place." Rika stated from her spot beside Ryo. "There's this forest I found when we were in the digital world for the first time. It was just before we all got reunited, and I had gone off on my own-"

Ryo cut her off. "You mean you stormed off when I came to your rescue for the first time."

Rika punched him lightly in the shoulder. "Whatever, Hero-boy. Anyways, It has a low treeline, and I think I recall a small clearing that we could probably set up camp in. Also, there were ponds all over the place."

Jeri's face lit up at her comment. "I could really use a bath!"

"Um, Jeri, we've only been here for two days. Not even that." Kazu reminded her.

"A bath would be wonderful!" Kat spoke up. "I haven't had a long, relaxing bath in who know how long! It's hard to get a decent soak around here, with all the digimon lurking in the woods.."

"Well, that place sounds just about perfect." said Takato. "Do you know how far away it is?"

"I think it's just over those mountains." Rika replied, pointing to a range of red rock formations, not too far away.

"Then we'd better get moving. We can probably make it by dark." Henry said. "Let's pack up."

A little while later, the tents had been taken down, and the tamers were ready to go.

Guilmon, Renamon, Terriermon and Monamon digivolved into their champion levels, becoming Growlmon, Kyubimon, Gargomon and Kitsumon. Labramon now had enough strength to digivolve into Dobermon, but Monodramon had sustained too much damaged to evolve back into Cyberdramon.

Takato and Jeri rode on Growlmon's shoulders, along with Calumon. The big red digimon carried a sleeping Monodramon in his arms. Henry strapped a few tents onto Gargomon's back, and he and Alice rode on Dobermon. Kazu and Kenta rode on Guardromon's shoulders, with Marineangemon close behind. Kat climbed onto Kitsumon's back. Rika finally gave in and allowed Ryo to ride behind her on Kyubimon. Ryo of course, took advantage of this and wrapped his arms around her waist. When she yelled at him for touching her, he insisted he had to, so he wouldn't fall off and hurt himself even worse than he was hurt now. Rika couldn't argue with that.

With a few modify cards (Ryo lent one of his to Kat, since she didn't have any) the tamers were over the hills and into the forest in a few hours. They found a large-enough clearing to pitch their tents, and set to work cooking dinner.

Takato and Jeri were using the ingredient Takato had packed to make some bread. Since they obviously couldn't have milk or eggs, they used powdered milk and egg substitutes. They had a good supply of clean water from a spring nearby.

Henry and Alice were using Alice's black laptop to try and analyse what little data they had on the Sayonamon. Of course, they weren't getting very far, since they were quite -ahem- distracted. Terriermon, who was perched on Henry's shoulder, asked, "Don't you two ever get tired of sucking face?". Henry's response was: "Terriermon, remember that time I taught you the meaning of the word "Tact?".

Kat and Kenta were heating up some canned meat to make a stew for dinner.

Rika had officially been elected to clean and re-bandage Ryo's burns and bruises. Which came down to her rubbing Ryo's bare chest with a rag soaked in rubbing alcohol (Kenta had the thought to bring a first aid kit) and wrapping bandages around his torso, which turned out to be quite awkard. Rika had to pass the roll of bandages from had to hand when she went around the back of his upper body, resulting in what could be described as a hug.

That left Kazu. He watched the other tamers, who had instantly paired off boy-girl. And who did he have?Guardromon was there, but he didn't really count, much. Even Kenta was busy, making Kat giggle at something he said. Nope, Kazu was all alone. And he found that slightly depressing.

"Hey Guardromon, wanna go for a walk?" he asked his digimon.

"Certainly, Kazu! That would be Cooler than Catfish!" the robot replied happily.

"Guy! I'm going for a walk with Guardromon!" Kazu called to the other tamers. Takato looked up and waved, but other than that, the other tamers seemed busy.

x.X.X.x

Kazu and Guardromon walking in silence. They were well away from the campsite, into the dense woods, when Kazu finally spoke.

"Hey Guardromon, have you noticed that everyone's split up into little twosomes? Like obviously Jeri and Takato, and not surprisingly Rika and Ryo, and Henry and that girl Alice. Even Kenta has Kat. And then I have nobody!" Kazu whined to his digimon. "I'm the odd one out!"

Suddenly, his ranting was interrupted by a crash in the woods.

"Arrow of Artemis!"

Kazu and Guardromon were bombarded by ice arrows.

"Kazu! We're being attacked!" Guardromon called to his tamer.

A shawdow darted from tree to tree, a little ways away.

"Then you'd better digivolve!" Kazu replied. "Digimodify! Matrix Digivolution Activate!"

Guardromon was transformed into Andromon. "Gattling Attack!" he shot back.

But the digimon continually dodged anything he threw at him, choosing the safe cover of the trees. Andromon launched missile after missile, and the enemy digimon continued showering them with arrows. They were getting nowhere.

"Come out and show yourself!" Kazu cried to the darting shadow. "Or are you too much of a coward?"

The digimon seemed to oblige, because it suddenly burst out of the shadows.

The creature that seemed to be floating before them was a blue and white armored woman-like knight digimon. Several crescent moons decorated her armour, including one on each shoulder and crescent moon faces on her legs. Her weapon was a long pole with two blades, positioned on oposite ends.

Kazu pulled out his red-brown digivice. "Dianamon," he read. "Shaman digimon. Mega level. Andromon, I think we're in trouble!"

"I can take her, Kazu" Andromon responded, firing another set of missiles.

But Dianamon was stronger. "Goodnight Moon!" she cried, and a light was emitted from the twin faces on her knees, bathing Andromon.

"Kazu, I feel sleepy.." the digimon called to his tamer.

"Come on, Andromon, fight it!" Then Kazu noticed something. The ribbons attached to Dianamon's shoulders were pink in the picture on his d-arc, but on the digimon attacking Andromon, the ribbons were black, and writhing around her, at times they seemed to wrap themselves around her, binding different parts of her. And for some reason, her eyes were glowing red. "Wait.. there's something wrong with this digimon.." he said to himself. Then he turned to his digimon. "Andromon, we've got to biomerge!"

Andromon was still fighting the force of the light. He managed to make his way to Kazu, and de-digivolved.

"Ready?" Kazu asked.

"We can do this!"

"Biomerge Digivolution Activate!" Kazu shouted, holding his digivice above his head. Both tamer and digimon were immersed in a mahogany light coming from Kazu digivice.

"Guardromon biomerge to..."

"HiAndromon!" the voices of Kazu and Andromon said in unison.

'Where.. where am I?' Kazu thought as he took in his surroundings. Somehow, he was in a sphere of red-brown light, his body seemed naked, and everything around him was glowing. But at the same time, he felt he was in a muscular body, in the same forest he had been in before. 'So this is what it feels like to biomerge..'

HiAndromon was a sleek, humanlike black robot. His face was coved in a visored helmet, his hands large, mechanical and sharp. On his left shoulder was a red spiked shoulder guard, and on his right, a twin of the guard in blue.

(A/N: if you want to see images of either HiAndromon or Dianamon, look them up on Wikipedia! That's where I found out about them)

"Atomic Ray!" he cried, shooting a blast of energy that hit Dianamon square in the chest. The force was enough to knock her into the air, but not enough to reduce her to data. Before Kazu's biomerged eyes, Dianamon split in two, forming a small digimon and a human-like figure. Both were plummeting quickly towards the ground.

HiAndromon had split back into Kazu and Guardromon. They were still inexperience at biomerging, and didn't have enough stamina to hold their mega form for long enough.

"Guardromon, Dianamon was a biomerged digimon! Her and her tamer are falling!" Kazu cried. "We've got to catch them!"

"But Kazu, they attacked us!" Guardromon spoke with reason. "What if they're still dangerous?"

"Don't think, just do!" Kazu said, and began to run through the obstacle course that was the forest floor towards the falling pair.

Luckily, they got to them when they were still far from the ground. Kazu caught the fallin human, a girl with long black hair in a purple long-sleeved shirt and white skirt, wearing knee-high white boots. Guardromon caught the digimon, which Kazu later identified as Lunamon, a white-pink rabbit with two sets of purple striped ears.

The girl in Kazu's arms slowly opened her eyes. Kazu saw that they were a shocking emerald green, and realized with a jolt who this girl was.

"You're... You're Namiko Orikasawa!" he exclaimed, referring to the teen pop idol, the one who he'd been about to see in concert.

The girl seemed to regain consciousness at the sound of her name, and began shaking violently. Then to Kazu's surprise, she flung her arms around his neck, and burried her face in his collar. Kazu wasn't sure what he was suposed to do with this obviously traumatized girl, so he decided to carry her back to the tamer's campsite.

He subcounsciously noted a burning sensation coming from the back of her neck, but didn't think anything of it. After all, he was carrying a famous girl in his arms.

x.X.X.x

Ryo and Rika sat at the trunk of a large tree in the forest. They had taken a walk, at Rika's request, and had sat down, since Ryo's injuries hurt.

"So what's this walk about, anyways?" Ryo asked curiously. He was seated fairly close to Rika, so close their thighs were almost touching.

"Okay, Mr. Legendary Tamer, you can't run forever," Rika began. "Tell me what you were gonna say those times we got interrupted. I haven't forgotten you promise already."

Ryo blushed and swallowed. 'Figures she would remember that...' he thought. 'Well, I guess she's right. I can't run forever.'

"Well, um... you see..." Ryo took a deep, calming breath. "Rika, ever since the defeat of the D-Reaper, I've kinda felt like something's changed between us." Seeing the look on Rika's face, almost a look of disapointment, he quickly corrected himself. "For the better, I mean.."

Rika's facial expression changed again, looking more reassured. "What are you saying?" she asked calmly, but with a hint of excitement buried in her voice, almost as if she knew what was coming.

"Rika, I.. since I met you, I felt something for you..." he said, staring at the green blanket coverint the forest floor. "Since the D-Reaper incident, when you entrusted all of Sakuyamon's powers to me, I felt that feeling grow stronger, and it's been growing ever since." he took another deep breath, and looked the redhead next to him in the eyes. "Rika, I think I'm in love with you."

Rika's eyes widened, her mouth dropping open slightly in shock. Deep down, she had known he was going to say something along those lines, but not quite that. "Ryo.. I... I think I love you too." she whispered, almost inaudibly.

Then, as if pulled by some invisible force, they both leaned inwards. Their faces moved closer, closer still, until their lips almost touched. Rika could feel Ryo's warm breath against her face.

And then...

"EVERYONE, GET OVER HERE!" It was Kazu's voice, calling from their campsite.

"What could possibly be wrong now?" Ryo asked, regretfully standing up. Rika did the same, looking equally put out.

The two rushed over to the campsite, to find Kazu with a black haired girl in his arms.

"Where'd you find her, Kazu?" Rika asked, the annoyance undisguised in her voice. "And how did you get her to let you carry her?"

Kazu opened his mouth to retort, but was interrupted by Kat, who ran over to the pair. "Nami!" she cried. The girl in Kazu's arms looked up, her eyes widening.

"Kat.. you're.. you're alright!" she whispered weakly, attempting to get out of Kazu's arms before falling back, clearly too weak to move too much.

"Of course I'm alright! What happened?" Kat was clearly happy to see this girl.

Caught up in the event of the new girl, the tamers didn't seem to notice Rika and Ryo slip away.

Once they were out of sight of the tamers, Ryo turned to Rika.

"Now, where were we?" he asked playfully.

"Mmm.. I remember.." Rika said, playing along with the game. Then she reached up on her tiptoes and kissed Ryo softly.

Ryo wrapped his arms around her waist, and instantly responded. Rika's arms entwined themselves around his neck, deepening the kiss. Both melted into their long-awaited embrace.

x.X.X.x

Well, there's the kiss so many of you reviewers have been waiting for!

Review, please!


	7. Chapter 7

(A/N: well, here's chapter 7!

This one's probably gonna be quite the fluffy chappie, I think.

x.X.X.x

Takato, Jeri, Henry, Alice, Kenta, Kazu, Kat and the new girl Nami were all seated in their campsite. Nobody seemed to really notice that Rika and Ryo were missing -well, except Jeri, but it seemed like she knew what was going on. She had a knack for those things. Nami was still shaking slightly, after being freed from her biomerged form by Kazu. The black-haired girl was curled up close to Kazu, her hands clinging to his arms in a death grip. It seemed like she had latched on to the boy who had saved her like he was a safety blanket. Kat was seated next to her friend, Kenta right beside her.

"You're not hurt, are you Nami?" Kat asked worriedly.

Nami shook her head. Kazu had explained the battle with the possesed Dianamon, and Kat had given the tamers a brief summary of her history with Nami.

"So you were brought here the same way Kat was?" Henry asked, eager to get all the facts.

Nami nodded again. "I was just checking my email..and.. I opened a file marked "Lunamon" and then.. I was here. And Kat was there with me." Nami said quietly.

'For a superstar, she's quite timid..' Kazu thought.

The rabbit-like digimon who Nami had referred to as Lunamon stirred from her position at Nami's feet. "Wh-Where am I?" the little bunny said softly.

Nami suddenly released Kazu's arm and bent down to sweep up her digimon. "Lunamon! You're alright! You don't feel.. possesed anymore, do you?"

Lunamon shook her head. "I feel normal.. like before."

"Uh, if you don't mind too much," Henry began. "Could you describe the feeling you had when you were possesed by those digimon?"

Nami looked a the ground, then looked back up at the tamers. "It's the worst feeling you can possibly have. It's like you have no control of what you're doing, but somehow a part of you actually wants to be hurting things, and is actually enjoying it. For me, it felt like I couldn't trust anyone, not even Kat." Nami sank down from her standing position to sit beside Kazu. "I guess it's because I've never really been able to trust many people. Growing up being forced to be somebody you're not by those you think you'd trust the most... and then having horrid rumours and such spread about you.. always terrible things all over the newspapers..." her hands had gone back to clutching Kazu's arm.

'So that's why she's so shy and confined.' Kazu thought. He smiled at Nami. "Nobody believed those things." he said.

"I guess not.. but just having those things said about me, when I was so young..."

Alice glared at Kazu. "You're not helping." she hissed angrily.

"I..I mean.." Kazu decided to shut up. He was surprised to find that Nami was clinging even tighter to his arm, her body closer still to his side.

Kenta, who had been quiet until then, spoke up. "Has anyone else noticed that Rika and Ryo aren't here?"

Alice and Jeri glared daggers at him. He wasn't supposed to mention that. Both girls knew full well the two were probably having a 'moment'.

Jeri quickly covered. "Oh, I think Cyberdramon had some excess energy to burn, so Ryo took him for a run. And.. Rika and Renamon went with them, just incase." she said cheerily.

"But.. Ryo wouldn't have a problem fighting-" Kazu started, only to be cut off by Kat, who seemed to have caught on to what was happening.

"You can never be too sure with the Sayonamon, can you? What if there are too many?"

Both Kazu and Kenta shrugged. They couldn't argue with that, could they?"

x.X.X.x

Rika gently took her lips off Ryo's, only to be pulled right back to him. She didn't fight it, which not only shocked Ryo, but herself aswell. Their lips remained locked in a passionate kiss, until Ryo remembered something: he needed to breathe. They broke apart, both gasping for breath, their faces flushed.

Their eyes met.

"So..." Ryo said, breaking the awkward silence between them. Both of them instantly looked at the ground.

"Yea.." Rika replied, just to continue talking. "Maybe.. we should be getting back. Their probably wondering where we went."

"I guess..." Ryo said. Then their eyes met again, and before either knew what they were doing, Ryo's arms had encircled Rika's waist, and fingers had tangled themselves in his hair, the distance between their mouths closing again.

'I'm sure they're not missing us too badly back at the campsite..' Ryo thought, before his mind wandered.. elsewhere.

x.X.X.x

Contrary to Ryo's belief, the other tamers WERE beginning to worry. Dark was approaching fast (literally, as it does in the digital world) and everyone back at the camp was beginning to wonder what exactly it was that Rika and Ryo were doing out there.

"I think we should go look for them," Kazu said, concerned for the safety of the digimon king. "What if they were attacked?"

Alice, Jeri, Kat and Nami exchanged glances. Jeri, Kat and Alice had explained what was going on between Ryo and Rika to Nami. The girls knew full well what would happen to them if they interrupted a moment between the two missing tamers. But they couldn't help but wonder if something terrible HAD happened to them. And if they had been attacked by the Sayonamon, and hadn't been able to defend themselves.. the four girls shuddered at the thought. And to top it off, it would all be their fault for thinking that Rika and Ryo were safe alone.

There was only one thing left to do.

"Girl meeting!" Jeri called to the three others. The female tamers quickly assembled a short distance away from the four very confused boys. Alice, Kat, Nami and Jeri formed a huddle.

"Okay, what do we do now?" Kat asked. "What happens if they HAVE been attacked, and we didn't go to save them?"

"That could be bad." Alice said. "But on the other hand, we'd be in trouble if we caught them in the middle of something, wouldn't you think?"

"True. And I'm sure that we have nothing to worry about." Jeri said, optimistically. "For one thing, Ryo and Rika are strong enough to protect themselves, or at least get away from those evil digimon. And besides, if they had been attacked, wouldn't we have heard or seen explosions?"

"I guess so, but what if they were kidnapped? Or attacked from behind, when they were distracted?" Nami asked nervously. She hadn't really met the two missing tamers, but since they were friends of her new-found friends, she couldn't help but be concerned.

"Well, I say that if they're not back in 10 minutes, we go look for them." Jeri said.

"And if they're just... occupied?" Kat said the word 'occupied' in a suggestive tone.

"Then we'll do it stealthily. We'll silently creep through the woods, and when we find them and see that they're alright, we'll just sneak back, and everything will be just peachy!" Jeri said happily.

"Okay. Sounds like a plan." the girls agreed, and broke the huddle.

"So what's going on now?" Takato asked, slightly confused.

"We've decided to give them about 10 or so minutes, and if they're not back by then, some of us will go looking for them. Sound good?" Alice stated, sitting back where she had been before, next to Henry. The boys agreed.

But the eight remaining tamers waited for those 10 minutes, playing 'I Spy' (Kazu's idea; of course, it was a ridiculous suggestion, since nothing could be seen in the dim light the fire cast.) but there was no sign of Ryo or Rika.

"So who's gonna go and get them?" Kazu asked.

"Not you." Alice said plainly. She was like Rika in some ways, one of them being the way that Kazu got on her nerves easily.

"Alice and I will go." Jeri volunteered.

"But.. Jeri, you don't really have a digimon, besides Calumon. And Labramon's still rather weak." Takato said gently, not wanting to upset his girlfriend over her lack of a digimon.

"Hm.. I guess you're right." Jeri replied. "Why don't you and Henry come along with us, just in case. The rest of you can stay here."

"Aww.. but I wanna see what's-" Kat stopped her whining, remembering that the male tamers didn't seem to know what was going on with Rika and Ryo. Or at least Kazua nd Kenta were completely clueless. "Nevermind, you guys go!" Kat said cheerfully, trying to cover up anything she might've let slip.

So Jeri, Takato, Henry and Alice started walking throught the forest, leaving Kat, Kenta, Kazu and Nami back at camp.

"Wait, why do we have to be quiet?" Terriermon, who was perched on Henry's head, asked.

"Because," Alice replied. "Rika will kill us if we interrupt something, so we're just going to silently check on those two, then get back to camp."

Henry had already caught on to what was happening, but Takato didn't really understand. "So... there's something going on with those two? Are they fighting or something?"

"No, silly," Jeri answered, taking Takato's arm. "They're probably just professing their undying love to each other." she sighed at the romantic thought.

"Oh... OH!" Takato caught on.

"Now he gets it..." Terriermon quipped.

"Shh! I think I see them!" Henry warned. Sure enough, the missing tamers were a little ways away. The four who made up the search-and-rescue party couldn't see much, and were hoping the two couldn't see them. Henry, Jeri, Takato, Alice and their digimon quickly ducked down behind some bushes.

"So they WERE making out all this time!" Jeri squealed as quietly as possible. Despite the darkness, the four tamers and three digimon (Calumon had been asleep, so they left him at camp) had managed to see that the shadowed figures were definetly wrapped in each other's arms.

"Takatomon, why are Rika and Ryo hugging each other for so long?" Guilmon asked his tamer innocently.

"Keep it down, boy!" Takato whispered back.

"Ryo and Rika sitting in a tree.." Terriermon began to chant quietly.

"Terriermon, if you don't shut up, we'll get caught!" Henry hissed.

"..K-I-S-S-I-N-G..." Terriermon sang in a whisper, twirling around and around.

Then catastrophe struck. One of Terriermon's flying ears tickled the tip of Labramon's sensitive nose, and..

He sneezed.

Instantly, Rika and Ryo sprang apart.

"Who's there?" Ryo called.

"Now you've done it!" Alice whispered angrily. "Quick, crawl back to camp!" the seven of them instantly took off, going as quickly and silently as possible.

x.X.X.x

Ryo turned back to Rika. "I could've sworn I just heard somebody sneeze.." he said.

"Me too." Rika replied, looking around nervously. What if somebody had seen them?

"Maybe we should be getting back to camp now." Ryo suggested.

"Good idea. It's dark already. And we haven't eaten yet."

"The food's probably cold by now anyways.."

"We can't have that, now can we?" Rika teased. Then, she quickly reached up and kissed him on the lips, took his hand and began leading him back towards the campsite.

x.X.X.x

Guilmon sniffed the air. "Rika and Ryo are coming!" he said happily.

Luckily, the search-and-rescue party had made it back safely, and before the two missing tamers got back.

"Well, if it isn't the digimon king and queen!" Kazu greeted. "Long time no see, huh?"

Rika and Ryo blushed red, though nobody could tell in the dark.

Suddenly, Kat sat up. "I just remembered!"

The tamers all turned towards her, thinking she might have something important to say about the Sayonamon.

"WE HAVEN'T EATEN YET!" Kat exclaimed.

The tamers sweatdropped.

"Now that you mention it, I'm hungry.." Kenta said.

They retrieved the now cold stew and bread that had been made a while ago, and ate. Everyone was exhausted. Jeri fell asleep on Takato's shoulder, spilling her cold stew on his lap. Then she woke up with a jolt.

"What?" Takato asked, trying to wipe the stew off his pants. "Is something wrong?"

"We have to have a girl-bonding sleepover!" she squealed.

Rika slapped her forehead. Alice's eye twitched. Kat and Nami's faces lit up. The two of them got up and grabbed hands with Jeri, repetitively jumping up and down squealing happily.

"How can a girl who was so tired she spilt cold stew all over me be so energetic all of a sudden?" Takato wondered out loud.

"Night, Takato!" Jeri chirped, giving him a quick kiss goodnight. Then she ran over to Alice, who had latched on to Henry. "C'mon, it'll be fun!"

"Henry, they're scaring me.." Alice gripped Henry's arm in a deathgrip. Jeri managed to finally pry her off him.

"Goodnight, Kenta!" Kat said, waving as she and Nami attempted to pull Rika towards the tent.

"Night, Kazu!" Nami said sweetly, as the two girls managed to drag Rika to the entrance to the tent.

"Damn..." Rika swore, giving in and being pulled into the tent the five girls would be sharing.

After all the female tamers had disappeared, the boys looked around at each other.

"What do we do now?" asked Kenta.

"Well, since the girls get a sleepover, why don't WE share a tenta and swap manly stories?" Kazu asked enthusiastically.

Takato, Ryo and Henry looked at him like he was crazy. "Umm..."

"So Ryo," Kazu began, "What exactly were you doing out in the woods with Rika?"

Ryo turned red. "Nothing... it's not important."

"Sounds like somebody got rejected." Kazu taunted.

"I did not!" Ryo said defensively.

"Well, before things get too weird, I'm going to bed." Henry said, getting up and walking to his tent.

"I'm gone, too. Night guys!" Takato got up aswell.

Ryo and Kenta followed, leaving Kazu no choice but to follow the trend and retire to his own tent.

x.X.X.x

Of course, the girls were busy giggling in their own tent. Even Alice was laughing, and Rika smiled. Kat was braiding Jeri's auburn hair into pigtails like her own, and they were chatting about- what else?- boys.

"So what exactly happened out there, huh Rika?" Jeri asked.

"It's n-nothing.." Rika lied, as Ryo had done, and turned bright red.

"Come on, we know it's not just NOTHING." Kat joined in. "Nothing doesn't take forever!"

"Well.." Rika didn't usually divulge information to her girlfriends. In fact, she hadn't ever really had any extremely close female friends to giggle with and gossip to. The feeling was completely new for her. "Ryo and I sorta.. umm.."

"Made out?" Jeri offered.

Rika nodded, and the girls 'awed' or squealed.

"So you two are together?" Nami said in her usual shy way.

"I.. I guess so.."

"Is he a good kisser?" Kat asked, her head resting in her hands and her elbows on her knees.

"Uhh.. well, yea, I guess so.." The squeals and aws came again.

Rika quickly changed the subject. "So how are you and Henry doing, Alice?" she asked tactfully.

Alice turned bright red at the mention of her boyfriend. "Um, fine, I guess.."

"You two are so cute together!" Kat giggled. Jeri nodded her agreement.

"You think so?" Alice asked, slowly warming up to this new experience of gossiping and giggling.

"He's a little skinny though, don't you think?" Nami said.

"Nah, he's pretty well toned." Alice said, now relaxed and comfortable among her friends.

"How would you know that?" Rika asked skeptically.

"He sleep with his shirt off." Alice said, bursting into a fit of giggles.

The others were shocked at first to hear Alice, who was always so quiet and solemn, giggling like Jeri. But then they too began to laugh. Even Rika did.

"So what about you two?" Jeri asked, referring to Kat and Nami. "Have your eye on anybody?"

Kat blushed bright red. "N-not r-really..."

"Oh come on, you're lying." Nami teased.

"Well.. Kenta is kinda... kinda cute.." Kat whispered.

Jeri, Nami and Alice giggled. Rika looked confused. "How can you like Kenta? He's so annoying!"

Kat shrugged. "He's just so.. nice and caring, I guess." she began giggling along with the others.

(A/N: Wow.. us girls certainly do alot of giggling at our sleepovers! -or at least me and my friends do at ours)

"What about you, Nami?" Alice asked.

"Well..." Nami started. "Kazu's kinda.. sweet.."

Rika's jaw dropped to the ground. "Are the two of you okay? Or.. deaf or something?" she asked. "I thought it was humanly impossible to like Kazu or Kenta!!"

The other four girls laughed even harder. "I guess there's always an exception!" Kat said between giggles.

Jeri lay back on her sleeping bag. "It looks like everybody has somebody.." she said wistfully. "Me and Takato, Alice and Henry, Ryo and Rika, Kat and Kenta, Nami and Kazu.." she trailed off. The other girls also got into their sleeping bags (Nami had borrowed an extra one).

"Y'know what we should do tomorrow?" Kat asked sleepily. "We should go swimming in one of those ponds. That'd be so awesome. We can have a real- well, almost real- bath, for the first time in so long.."

"Mmhmm..." Nami said, already half asleep.

"G'Night everyone..."

And the girls fell asleep, closer than ever.

The boys were all in their separate tents, wondering how the girls could giggle so much without bursting a lung.

x.X.X.x

Loonng chappie.. fingers.. soo.. sore...

Review, please:D


	8. Chapter 8

A/N: Oh wow.. I haven't been able to update in so long... it's been a whole week or so.. longer, actually.. I've been so busy with homework and such, and now I'm having ridiculous boy troubles... oh bloody hell.

Well, this isn't somewhere for me to whine about my personal dilemmas, so on with the fanfic!

x.X.X.x

It was early in the morning, and the tamers were still sleeping comfortably in their tents, the five girls in the largest and each of the five boys in their separate tents. They were all settled into deep sleeps, wrapped in their dreams. Well, all except Rika. She had never been one to sleep in, and had snuck out of her shared tent to take a walk through the peaceful woods while things were still calm.

"Renamon?" the red-head called to her golden fox-digimon.

"Yes Rika?" the fox responded from her perch on an overhanging branch.

"Do you.. do you think that love is weak?" the girl asked quietly.

"Digimon do not feel love. We're made up of data, therefore we're incapable. But from what I've seen humans do for the ones they love, it seems to me that love is definitely nowhere near weak. In fact, it is probably the strongest emotion of all." the digimon paused. "Rika, is this about what has been going on between you and Ryo?" she asked.

Rika looked downwards. "I guess it is." she looked up and met Renamon's eyes. "But if what you say is true, then I guess I have nothing to worry about, huh?" A smile played on her lips.

"No Rika, you will never have anything to worry about with friends like yours who will always be there for you. And you have me. I'll protect you no matter what."

"Thanks Renamon." Rika said, turning back towards the campsite. "C'mon. It sounds like the others are waking up."

x.X.X.x

Jeri, always an early riser, was already up and making breakfast for the other tamers.

"Morning, Jeri," Kat said groggily, coming out of their tent wearing only a borrowed, over-sized T-shirt and pj shorts. Her hair was out of its usual braids, and feel around her shoulders.

Nami and Alice followed, and soon Takato, Henry, Ryo and Kenta all emerged from their tents. Everyone was awake but Kazu, and Rika was still gone.

"Somebody wanna go wake up Kazu?" Takato asked from his position beside Jeri, toasting bread and eggs.

Nami stood up. "I'll take care of it," she said with a wink towards the three girls sitting around the fire.

She walked off towards the direction of Kazu's tent. As she disappeared behind the trees dividing the tent from the campfire circle, Rika emerged from the opposite direction.

"Looks like everyone's awake already," she said nonchalantly.

"Where'd you go?" Ryo asked.

"Just a walk. What's for breakfast?" Rika said down and grabbed a piece of toast.

x.X.X.x

Nami quietly unzipped the flap of Kazu's tent and ducked inside. Ever since the boy had pulled her out of that trance she had been in while being possessed by her mark, she had grown attached to him. He was just comforting to her, the way he always had something funny to say, or always seemed to see a brighter side of things.

"Kazu?" she asked tentatively, noticing the boy sprawled out on his mattress, wearing only a crimson pair of boxers. He was fast asleep.

All of a sudden, her foot caught on his discarded sleeping bag, pushed to the end of the tent as if he had kicked it off in his sleep. She tripped and fell, face-first onto the sleeping Kazu. He awoke with an "Oof!" at the impact, his eyes widening when he noticed the girl laying on top of him, their noses nearly touching.

"M-morning, Namiko," he said almost nervously.

"Just Nami. Namiko's a stage name." the black haired girl replied. She was only wearing a pale blue sleeveless top and a pair of pj pants. Neither of them moved.

"Soo..." Kazu said, breaking the slightly awkward silence that floated in the air after Nami had spoken. "Am I the last one awake?"

Nami giggled.

x.X.X.x

It was midday. The tamers lay bored in the shade of a tree. Despite the cool darkness cast by the tree, the sun's digital heat still penetrated the foliage. It was so hot that Henry had removed his vest, Takato his blue hoodie and Kenta his beige shirt. The three of them lay about in T-shirts. The digimon were all fast asleep.

Kat sat up. "I forgot!" she said excitedly. "There are ponds around here! Let's go swimming!" she jumped up, grabbing Nami and Rika's hands, pulling them up. Then she pulled Jeri and Alice up, and the boys stood up themselves.

Kat practically skipped to a nearby pond, leading the group. They stood at the edge of the small pool of water, gazing longingly at it, crystal clear and glimmering in the sun. A small waterfall ran nearby, and a stream trickled nearby.

"But.. we don't have swimsuits or anything..." Alice stated the obvious.

"How are we supposed to-" Kenta stopped talking at the sight of Kat stripping off her pink shirt and brown corduroy shorts, along with her cream colored fingerless gloves and legwarmers. She got down to her bra and underwear, both a blue-green color, and dove into the pond.

The golden-haired girl resurfaced happily, shaking out her braids. She looked back at the tamers. "Aren't you coming in?" she called to them, treading water.

They looked nervously back at her. "Um.. Kat?" Takato asked. "I'm not sure if it's normal where you come from, but back in Japan, it's kinda weird to just pull off your clothes and go swimming in your underwear.."

Kat blinked back at them, unfazed. "Umm.. so are you coming or not?"

Nami shrugged, and yanked off her shirt and skirt and pulling off her boots, diving in.

Kazu followed, one of the bolder tamers. Kenta was right behind his friend. The two of their heads popped out of the water. "Come on! The water's amazing!" Kazu called.

The remaining six tamers exchanged glances.

"Well, it's not as if anyone else is watching," Jeri said.

Rika sighed. "Well, what have I got to loose?" she stripped down to her dark purple underclothes. Ryo choked, his eyes widening, not even bothering to attempt to advert his gaze.

Alice and Jeri looked to each other, both shrugging in unison and then stripping off their clothes. Jeri wore a matching green bra and panty set, Alice's were plain black. Henry and Takato turned bright red as the girls jumped into the water.

"Oooh.. this is refreshing!" Jeri exclaimed, spreading herself into a star float. "Are you coming, Takato?"

The goggle-headed tamer stood on the side of the pond, gawking at his girlfriend. "Uhhh..." he looked towards Henry and Ryo for advice. The both of them were busy gawking at their own girls.

"Well, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I guess." Henry said, slowly pulling off his shirt. The last two remaining tamers followed suit, and all three of them joined the others in the water.

Henry sighed contentedly. "This is amazing.." he said, then dived deep into the pond.

Rika swam a few laps back and forth across the small space of pond. She was treading water near the small waterfall when something grabbed her by the ankles and pulled her under. Her scream was muffled as her mouth was submerged.

Her eyes were squeezed shut when she felt two hands on her shoulders. She slowed opened her eyes and saw a pair of sky blue ones staring back at her. A mischievous smile played on Ryo's lips. He seemed comfortable underwater, even though he should have been lacking oxygen by now. Rika herself was quickly running out of breath. Then she remembered something. In the digital world, you were only data. When the electrical appliances got wet, they hadn't been affected by it. If you thought you had to get wet, then you would get wet. But if you didn't, then you would remain unaffected. So it must be the same with breathing. She took a tentative breath, repeating 'I can breath, I can breath, I can breath' over and over in her head. To her surprise, the air came easy.

Ryo smiled, noticing her realization. Then he released her shoulders and took her hand, pulling her towards the edge of the pond. Rika wondered why the brown-haired boy was pulling her towards the rock wall. Then she noticed that there was an opening in the side of the wall, just big enough to fit one person. Ryo had clearly been exploring.

He let her go in first, then followed right behind. The two of them swam through the stone tunnel. They resurfaced after a short while, their heads coming out in a small pond. Rika looked around herself, seeing that Ryo had taken her to a large cavern, lit by small cracks in the surrounding rock letting light in, reflected by the pond in the middle that they had resurfaced from. They were inside the small waterfall.

Ryo grinned at her. "I thought we could use some privacy."

Rika blushed, suddenly extremely conscious of the fact that both of them were only wearing soaking underwear as they climbed out of the water. She stood up and looked around again, turning slowly on the spot. "It's beautiful in here," she breathed. Then, as she had almost made a full circle, she came face-to-face with Ryo (well, face-to-neck, since she was shorter than him).

"Hey," he said quietly in her ear.

"Hey," she replied in a whisper.

Then he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her.

x.X.X.x

The other tamers outside the cave didn't really seem to notice Rika and Ryo's disappearance yet again. They were too busy having fun. Kazu, Nami, Kenta and Kat were having chicken wars, with the girls riding on their shoulders. Henry and Alice were simply relaxing on the edge of the pond, their feet dangling in the water. Takato and Jeri were happily swimming around.

The tamers had noticed that the pond didn't seem to have a bottom. They had discovered what Rika and Ryo had found out earlier, that they could breathe underwater, and had tried to swim to the bottom without success. It had become too dark to see anything, so they'd had to resurface. It didn't seem to bother them, though, since if there was something down there, it would've already attacked them.

Jeri swam over to Takato, who had been floating near the far side of the pond. "Takato?" she called tentatively.

Takato looked up from his position lying down. "Yeah, Jeri?"

Jeri was now at this side. Their eyes met, and he noticed that hers seemed to hold a hint of sadness. "Am I holding everyone back?"

"Wha..?" her question had taken him by surprise. Why would she be holding them back? "What do you mean by that? Of course you aren't!"

"It's just that.. since I don't have a partner.." Jeri's eyes drifted downwards. Her next words came in a whisper. "I must just be a burden to everyone, not being able to fight and all."

Takato's eyes widened. "No! Don't think like that!" he moved closer to the girl, and put his arms around her. "I don't care if you can't fight. If you weren't here, I wouldn't want to fight."

A smile was slowly making it's way across Jeri's face. "You mean it?" she whispered, her head resting on his shoulder.

"Of course I mean it. You mean a lot to me, Jeri."

The two floated in that position, Takato's arms wrapped around Jeri and Jeri's head resting on his shoulder, for a while. Kazu, Kenta, Nami and Kat had tired themselves out by then, and had decided to climb to the top of the waterfall. Henry and Alice were laying on their backs, feet dangling in the water. It was already late-afternoon.

The eight tamers were taken by surprise when a rumbling was felt in the ground. suddenly, the previously calm water began to move, the splashing getting more and more crazed. Jeri and Takato, the only ones in the water, were being thrown around like corks in a sloshing bathtub. Nami fell off her perch on the side of the waterfall, Kazu tumbling after her when he tried to grab her hand.

Henry stood on the side of the pond, trying to reach Kazu and Nami, who were closest, with a long branch. "You have to get out of the water! We don't know what could be coming!" he cried to the four in the wild pond, which now seemed to be forming into a whirlpool. Kazu grabbed the stick with one hand, and pulled Nami close with the other. The two were pulled to safety by Henry and Alice.

On the opposite side of the pond, Takato was climbing up a steep bank onto shore, with Jeri right behind him. He was reaching down to take her hand to help her up when the earth shook yet again. Suddenly, four long serpent-like forms rose out of the water. Jeri slipped on the side, and Takato's hand missed her own. She tumbled back into the swirling water.

"JERI!" Takato cried.

The spray around the four digimon. Kazu immediately recognized the sea dragon digimon. "Those are only Seadramon! They're just champion level, so we shouldn't have any problem beating them."

Henry, Alice, Kazu, Kenta, Kat and Nami reached for the D-arcs, only to remember they're digimon were back at the campsite, too far away to hear them.

"Takato!" Jeri screamed as she was pulled deeper into the water. Suddenly, the Seadramon surrounded her, their tails wrapping around and around her. "TAKATO!!" she screamed louder again.

"JERI! NO!" Takato jumped into the pond. He began swimming towards the trapped girl, which was easy considering he was swimming with the very strong tide. Just as he was almost close enough to grab her outstretched hand, the four Seadramon dove under, pulling Jeri with them and drowning her screams.

x.X.X.x

Ryo and Rika had staying in that cave for what seemed like all afternoon. Neither of them had any idea how much time they had spent there, in each other's embrace, or lying on the stone floor of the high-ceilinged cave just talking. Now Rika lay beside Ryo, entangled in his arms and locked in another passionate kiss.

She gently pulled away and sat up, but Ryo sat up as well and kissed her again. He lightly nibbled her lips as he rubbed her back. Rika broke away once again. "Ryo," she began. "Don't you think the others are wondering where we went? How long have we been here?"

Ryo looked back at her with his unbelievably blue eyes. "Yea, I guess we should get back. They probably haven't noticed we've been gone, but just incase.." he stood up, helping Rika to her feet. Suddenly, the ground gave a great shake, knocking them both off their feet. Rika fell into Ryo's arms.

"Looks like they don't want us to.." Ryo said with a grin on his face.

Rika stood up again. "Come on, Ryo, everyone's probably worried, especially after that weird earthquake-" she stopped abruptly, realizing something. "Hey.. since when is there water all the way over here?"

They had been standing closer to one of the stone walls of the cave, far from the water-filled tunnel they had come up from. But for some strange reason, water was quickly pooling around Rika and Ryo's ankles. Then they realized that the chamber was beginning to fill up with water, and fast.

"I think we should get out of here," Ryo suggested. Both he and Rika ran towards the exit, the water rising past their shins, their knees, their thighs.. The current was strong, and they were both having troubles getting there. "Rika, there's no way we're going to make it through that tunnel! The current's just too strong!" Ryo shouted over the rush of water, which was knocking him off his feet.

"There's got to be another way out!" Rika replied. Even though they could breathe underwater, the pressure of the water coming out of the tunnel would be strong enough to crush them. By now the water was around Rika's neck.

Ryo swam over. "We should look for an exit!" he suggested.

Both of them began searching the cave for even a crack out of which they could escape. The water had risen so high that the two of them had to swim. It took them a while to search the cave, long enough for the chamber to fill up halfway. The water showed no signs of stopping, and was rising higher and higher.

"Ryo, we're going to be crushed!" Rika shouted. Ryo managed to fight his way through the water and over to her. Rika grabbed onto him and clung for dear life. Ryo held her tightly. Both were hoping for a miracle. The cave was now three quarters full, the pressure of the water pushing them up and up towards the ceiling. Now there was only a small space of air, about a foot, between their heads and the roof of the cave.

Thinking that this was the end of the line for both him and Rika, Ryo held her tightly and kissed her for what he was sure was going to be the last time.

But with a final rumble and an inch to spare between the pair's heads and the cave ceiling, the water began to drain away, much faster than it had come. Ryo and Rika were quickly lowered back to the ground, where they both lay sprawling and gasping for breath. Their hearts were pumping at the near-death experience. Rika rolled over and hugged Ryo with a death grip.

"I was.. so scared," she gasped.

Ryo helped her stand up, both of their knees shaking. "Now we'd really better get back, before anything like that happens." Rika nodded in response, and they were both down the exit hole. Ryo held Rika all the way back to the pond.

Both of them resurfaced to find the other tamers sitting on the shore, staring into the pond. Takato had his head in his hands, Henry beside him trying to calm him down and Alice tapping away on her black laptop. Kat looked scared out of her mind, Kenta as well. Beside them, Nami clung to Kazu, who now seemed to be her official safety blanket. Ryo and Rika noticed something.

"Where's Jeri?" Rika demanded instantly. "And what happened?"

Takato seemed to crumple even more. Henry's expression was a mix of anger and worry. "While you two were off somewhere, Jeri got kidnapped by a bunch of Seadramon! Where were you?"

Alice stood up. "We can talk later. Right now, we have no time to loose. I've scanned the area, and I know where they've taken Jeri."

Takato instantly sat up. "Where? Get the digimon! We need to go NOW!"

"The Seadramon have taken her to a gigantic underground chamber. If we dive to the bottom of the pond, eventually it becomes a straight tunnel, then goes up and lead right into a huge cavern." Alice replied calmly.

"So what are we waiting for?" Kat asked, standing up. "Let's go already!" she dove into the water.

"Not so fast!" Henry called after her. "We need our digimon!"

"Did someone call for us?" Renamon's voice came from the shadows behind Rika. The other digimon had also all roused from their nap and come to see what was happening with the tamers.

"We'll need these," Henry pulled out a few cards from his deck, all the same. They all read 'Aquatic Attack'.

"Ooh!" Kat exclaimed, digging around in her discarded shorts pockets. "I have one of those!"

The other tamers took out theirs, swiping them through their D-arcs with a collective "Digi-modify! Aquatic Attack activate!"

The digimon and tamers dove into the water, swimming deeper and deeper in the pond.

'I hope we're not too late,' Takato thought.

x.X.X.x

(A/N: well, that took me long enough... I think this might be the longest chapter yet!

I actually have an Aquatic Attack card, from when I collected the digimon cards when I was little. I just dug them out recently, for the very purpose of this fanfic . I'm very proud of my collection, with the old cards, the newer cards (with all the Armor digivolutions) and thirty or so Japanese cards! My favorite is definitely my Cherubimon card.

Well, enough about my Digimon cards.

Review, please!


	9. Chapter 9

(A/N: I've been so busy lately with homework and trips and everything! Thankfully it's march break..

I'll try my best to finish this ASAP, but it's probably gonna end up taking me ages.. --;

Thanks for all the reviews!

x.X.X.x

Jeri slowly sat up, her eyes squinted because of the brightness surrounding her. Where was she? She managed to open her eyes a sliver, seeing that she was in what appeared to be a large glowing bubble. Below her, she caught glimpses of grey dots, and what appeared to be water. She figured she was pretty high up.

Looking down at herself, she found she was clothed in a beautiful pale-green satin gown. It was embroidered with little vines and suns, with lighter green accents. It was old-fashioned, with a tight-fitting bodice and a long, flowing skirt. The neckline fell just around her shoulders. 'How come I'm wearing this?' Jeri thought to herself. 'And who put me in it?'

Suddenly, the light coming from the surrounding bubble dimmed, and her questions were answered. Outside her bubble was what appeared to be a digimon, with a human-like body with a pointed squid-shaped head and what appeared to be four white tentacles. His eyes were red and beady, and his mouth was lined with pointed teeth.

Jeri's eyes widened in recognition, and the digimon spoke. "Tamer..." his voice was rough and whispery, chilling Jeri to the bone. "You can be the one to help me attain my full power. You have no digimon, yes?"

Jeri nodded her head without really meaning to do so, almost as if she was a puppet.

"Do you wonder why you're here, instead of any of your friends? Do you know why it was you that we chose, tamer?"

Jeri shook her head. His voice seemed to weave through her mind, tangling her brain into knots and making her thoughts go numb.

"We chose you because you were weak. Because you have no digimon to save you." her kidnapper's mouth formed into a wicked grin. "I can fix that. You can be my tamer. Then both of us will be strong."

Deep in Jeri's mind, one part remained awake, immune to the spell he was putting on her with his wicked words. 'Don't listen to him!' the thought screamed from the back of her head. 'It's the D-Reaper all over again! He's just telling you lies!'

At this, Jeri seemed to snap awake. "No!" she said, her voice cracking slightly. "No. I don't want to be your tamer. Just let me go!" Her voice was stronger this time.

"Is that so?" the digimon asked. "Well then, we'll have to do this the hard way." One of his tentacles reached towards her, slipping through the wall of the bubble, and dug its claws into her neck. Jeri cried out in pain, and quickly slipped away into darkness.

x.X.X.x

The nine digimon sped through the water-filled underground tunnels, their tamers clinging onto their backs.

"How much farther?" Rika asked Kyuubimon, as the fox turned a sharp corner.

"Not long now." the digimon replied calmly, as usual. Rika looked up just in time to see a dead end, then to feel a tug upwards as Kyuubimon quickly pulled up, speeding upwards towards a light. Looking behind her, Rika saw the others had done the same.

Their heads broke the surface to reveal a cavernous stone room with various platforms of rock jutting out of the water around them. The room was massive, all filled with water. At the opposite end was a larger platform, with what appeared to be a gigantic throne carved into the rock wall.

"Whoa..." Kazu breathed. "This is huge!"

"Hey look at that!" Takato exclaimed, pointing towards a bubble floating in the air. "There's something inside!"

"It's Jeri!" Rika shouted. "We have to get her out!"

The tamers hauled themselves out of the water and onto a platform. Kat stood up. "Kistumon and I can probably fly up to get her out of there," she said, nodding at her digimon. Kat climbed on the dog-like creature's back, and Kistumon spread her neon green dragonfly wings. They had risen about halfway to the floating sphere when something shot out of the water, knocking Kistumon and Kat back towards the ground. Kenta managed to break Kat's fall by catching her.

"It's... It's huge!" Henry said in awe.

Ryo pulled out his digivice and pointed it towards the gigantic serpent-like digimon. Its armour-covered body stood half out of the water, like a cobra ready to strike. "GigaSeadramon."Ryo read. "Mega level. Special attacks: Giga Sea Destroyer and Sky Wave. That thing's big enough to swallow us whole!"

The metal sea serpent dove back underwater, disappearing from the tamers' view.

"It's... gone?" Kenta asked, confused.

Suddenly, the ground beneath them began to shake. The tamers grabbed hold of each other to try and steady themselves, and watched in fear as GigaSeadramon reappeared, along with three other sea serpent digimon.

Takato, Henry and Rika pulled out their d-arcs. "That one's MetalSeadramon, another Mega. His special attacks are River of Power and Giga Ice Blast." Takato read, looking at the smaller of the armored serpents.

"That one's WaruSeadramon. He's only an ultimate, but a strong one. His special attacks are Poison Wave and Dark Ice Blast." Henry said, pointing his d-arc at a green-striped crimson serpent, with black armor on its head and a gold horn.

"And the last one is MegaSeadramon." Rika read. "He's also an ultimate, and his attacks are Thunder Javelin and Mega Ice Blast." The serpent in question was blue-striped and bright red, with gold armor coating its head and electric sparks dancing around its body.

"So.. what exactly are we supposed to do about this?" Kazu asked, watching as the four digimon began to swim in slow circles around them.

"There's only on thing to do about it," Henry replied. "We have to fight them. First we have to digivolve." he looked to the rest of the group. "Ready?"

The tamers nodded, and in unison, swiped the special card and shouted "Digi-modify! Matrix Digivolution Activate!"

The eight of the digimon who were in champion form digivolved into their ultimate level.

"Now what?" Kat asked.

"Now we fight!" Ryo answered.

Takato nodded. "Since there are four of them and nine of us, we can split off into groups of two."

"And we'll distract the four Seadramon so you can go save Jeri." Rika added.

"But the hard part will be deciding who fights which Seadramon." Henry finished.

Nami stepped forward. "Crescemon has no problem with water, and Kat and I have taken on worse than this, so we can team up against one of the Megas."

Kat nodded enthusiastically. "We'll take GigaSeadramon. That sea serpent can't get away with knocking Kitsumon and I down!"

"Then Rika and I will take on MetalSeadramon." Ryo said.

"Who says I'm fighting with you, pretty boy?" Rika said defiantly.

"Now isn't the time to argue!" Henry interrupted their fighting. "Alice and I will go against WaruSeadramon, and Kazu and Kenta will keep MegaSeadramon busy. You two shouldn't have any trouble with MarineAngemon on your side, since he's a Mega."

"But that thing could EAT MarineAngemon!" Kenta protested. But none of the others were listening. Instead, the tamers raised their d-arcs, preparing to biomerge.

"Ready?" Takato called. "On my count! One, two, thr-"

"WAIT!" Nami screamed. "You can't! Look at the ceiling!"

The tamers obeyed and looked up to where Nami was pointing. Above them were hundreds of Mortitiamon, all hanging like bats from the rock.

Kat gasped. "This isn't good..." she said. "They're pretty heavy sleepers, being blind and deaf, but their sense of smell is strong. They have some way of smelling it when you biomerge. So that pretty much eliminates that option."

"Well, we'll just have to fight them as we are." Takato said, still determined. Turning to the others, he began counting again. "Ready? One, two, three- ATTACK!"

The seven ultimate and single mega digimon sprang in their groups of two at the surrounding Seadramon, while Takato and WarGrowlmon began making their way towards the floating orb, jumping from stone pillar to stone pillar.

"Tail Tornado!" Faynamon attacked GigaSeadramon as she fluttered around his head.

"Lunatic Dance!" Crescemon attacked GigaSeadramon from below, darting across the surface of the water in an erratic dance. GigaSeadramon lunged upwards, towards Faynamon, then downwards, towards Crescemon, then upwards again, unable to decide which troublesome digimon to attack. Kat and Nami both stood on one of the stone pillars that rose out of the water.

Meanwhile, Rapidmon and Cerberumon were battling WaruSeadramon. Rapidmon was attacking the sea serpent digimon with his Rapidfire from the air, and Cerberumon sent attacks from the stone pillar where Henry and Alice both stood, since he couldn't fly or swim.

Kazu and Kenta were having slight problems against MegaSeadramon, since the digimon wouldn't stop ducking in and out of the water, too fast for Andromon to aim or for MarineAngemon to catch up to. Both digimon and tamers were slightly confused at why MegaSeadramon kept moving instead of attacking them, but Kazu and Kenta didn't have a problem if the sea serpent wasn't causing them trouble. They decided that the digimon was just a few crayons short of a rainbow (as Kazu put it).

Though Taomon and Cyberdramon were making short work of MetalSeadramon, Ryo and Rika were busy arguing.

"Why the hell did you just volunteer Taomon and I to fight with you?" Rika shouted angrily over the noise the fighting digimon were making. "You didn't even ASK me!"

"What does it matter?" Ryo retorted. "We would've been together anyways! And who else was I supposed to team up with?"

"That's not the point!" Rika's voice grew in volume.

Ryo reached out and took hold of Rika's forearm. "This isn't what you're mad about, is it?" he asked knowingly. "Something else is wrong. Just tell me what." His voice was softer, partially because he was physically closer,but mostly for comfort.

"It's just that.." Rika trailed off, her eyes softening and her gaze drifting downwards. "If we hadn't been so selfish and left the group to go into that cave, then none of this would ever have happened. We would've been able to fight the Seadramon that kidnapped Jeri, and then we wouldn't be going through all this."

Ryo's voice grew slightly sterner. "You know completely well that we wouldn't have been able to do anything against those Seadramon, judging by the way they created that whirlpool. We wouldn't have had our digimon with us soon enough anyways. And besides, everyone else was relaxing; there was no way anyone could've predicted what was going to happen."

"Renamon could have sensed it. I shouldn't have let my guard down."

"Do I have to spell it out for you? THERE. WAS. NOTHING. WE. COULD. DO." Ryo was growing impatient.

Their argument was interrupted when one of MetalSeadramon's attacks hit the stone they were standing on, causing it to shatter. Luckily, Ryo had been alert, and had grabbed Rika around the waist and jumped onto the nearest pillar. "See?" he asked. "You can't predict things! You just have to learn how to find your way out of the situation!"

Rika sighed. "I guess you're right,"

"There, doesn't that feel better?" Ryo smiled triumphantly.

"What do you mean 'Doesn't that feel better?'"

"Doesn't admitting I'm right feel better?"

Rika punched Ryo in the arm, not exactly lightly. "Shut up pretty boy, and keep your eyes on the fight."

"Right.." Ryo replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head. 'I guess she caught me staring.. It's not my fault that we forgot to actually get dressed again before we went after Jeri..'

x.X.X.x

Takato rode on WarGrowlmon's shoulder as his digimon jumped from stone to stone, making his way towards the floating orb that held Jeri. As soon as the two were below it, Takato stood up.

"Alright, WarGrowlmon, throw me up to that ball as hard as you can!" he instructed the digimon.

"If you say so, Takatomon," WarGrowlmon reached up to let Takato climb onto his forepaw, lowered him slowly and flung his tamer upwards as hard as he could. Takato soared through the air, getting closer and closer to the sphere.

"Jeri!" Takato shouted. "I'm coming!" What happened next wasn't expected, but appreciated. Instead of hitting a solid surface as Takato expected to find, he passed right through the exterior of the orb, floating into the center. With a gasp, he scrambled in mid-air and fell face-first onto the floor of Jeri's prison. "Ow..."

"Ta-Takato?" he heard a familiar, hopeful voice whisper.

Instantly he sat up, and his eyes found what he had been searching for. "Jeri!" he cried happily, rushing over to the girl and flinging his arms around her. Jeri instantly returned the embrace, squeezing him tightly and burrying her face into his chest. He stroked her hair, and whispered to her soothingly. "It's alright. I'm here now. I'll get you out of here."

"Takato.. Why does it always have to be me who gets separated from everyone else?" Jeri asked softly. "What is it about me that the bad guys always seem to like?"

"I don't know, Jeri." Takato replied softly, still holding her in his arms tighter than ever. They stayed that way, in a comfortable, comforting silence, just enjoying each other's prescence.

Their moment was interrupted by a cold, wicked voice. "How touching..." it said in a chilling whisper. "Reunited at last, saved from the evil monsters, yes? Too bad I'm going to have to ruin this little moment!" The voice erupted in high, maniacal laughter. Takato and Jeri looked up just in time to see Jeri's captor before the sphere surrounding them vanished, and they plummeted towards the water below them.

"MarineDevimon?" Takato whispered incredulously, staring up at the digimon who stood on a column of water, high above them.

Luckily their fall was broken by WarGrowlmon, who was still below where the orb used to be. He caught the two falling tamers, and gently laid them onto the ground. But the three of them were knocked off balance, as the pillar they were standing on began to shake violently.

"We're sinking!" Jeri shouted, realizing what was happening.

MarineDevimon resurface in front of them. "Dark Deluge!" he attacked them, spewing black ink from his mouth. WarGrowlmon retaliated with an Atomic Blaster, but the attack missed as MarineDevimon ducked underwater.

"How are we supposed to fight him when the water gives him an advantage?" Takato wondered aloud.

x.X.X.x

"How are we supposed to fight them when the water gives them an advantage?" Kazu whined, looking out at the Seadramon surrounding them.

The other tamers had regrouped onto a single column. Taomon and Cyberdramon had managed to defeat MetalSeadramon, but the others were having no luck against their opponents. GigaSeadramon was too big for the two tiny digimon, Faynamon and Crescemon, to handle. WaruSeadramon and MegaSeadramon were both too fast for Rapidmon, Cerberumon, Andromon and MarineAngemon to catch. The eight digimon were tired, but still fighting.

"What do we do now?" Kat asked. "They have us surrounded!"

The three remaining Seadramon were circling them, ducking in and out of the water to dodge the attacks launched at them. Suddenly, MarineAngemon flew forwards, ready to launch another attack at the Seadramon.

"Kahuna Wa-" the tiny digimon was cut off.

The tamers gasped, and Kenta fell to his knees. "GigaSeadramon ate MarineAngemon!"

But Kenta's digivice began to glow. "What's happening?" he asked, confused. "I thought he was already at Mega Level!"

GigaSeadramon began to writhe, as if in intense pain. Then his mouth was forced open, and a digimon climbed out.

"It's Zudomon!" Kenta exclaimed. "MarineAngemon de-digivolved!"

GigaSeadramon fell back into the water. Zudomon landed in front of the tamers. He raised his arm, bringing it down on the head of GigaSeadramon. "Vulcan's Hammer!" he shouted. GigaSeadramon sank into the water, not resurfacing.

"Zudomon kicks butt!" Kazu shouted, punching the air.

Now the tamers were faring better. Since they only had the two ultimate digimon, WaruSeadramon and MegaSeadramon, as opponents, they had the clear advantage. Crescemon and Zudomon could attack from the water, so the Seadramon couldn't escape. They were forced to resurface, being open to the other digimon's attacks. Soon the tamers had taken down WaruSeadramon, and shortly after MegaSeadramon.

"Where's Takato?" Henry asked the others.

Rika stood up and looked across the room, her eyes scanning the gigantic chamber."There!" she exclaimed, having spotted him. "He's all the way over there, with WarGrowlmon. And it looks like another digimon's there too!"

"It must be the one who captured Jeri." Alice said, squinting her eyes to try and see across the distance.

"We should get over there and help him!" Kazu said enthusiastically.

"We can't, our digimon are exhausted!" Nami replied, as she helped Lunamon out of the water. "Crescemon was so exhausted that she de-digivolved."

Looking over at their own digimon, the tamers realized that the vast majority had returned to their rookie forms, except Cyberdramon, who stayed at his ultimate form, Cerberumon and Andromon, who had simply returned to their champion forms, and Zudomon, who had somehow digivolved back into MarineAngemon (Kenta assumed this was because he was more comfortable in his mega form).

"I guess we'll have to wait until they recover to get over there," Kat stated. "It looks like we won't be leaving this rock for a while.."

The Seadramon had destroyed every surrounding stone column, whether by accident or on purpose, it was unknown, but it certainly had boxed the other tamers in. No human could jump far enough to reach the closest pillar, and who knew what else lurked in those waters.

"I hope Takato's doing alright over there.." Henry murmured, looking across the gigantic chamber.

x.X.X.x

Takato was getting frustrated. Whatever attack WarGrowlmon sent, MarineDevimon managed to dodge it. The fact that he could sink back into the water whenever he pleased and that WarGrowlmon was stuck on the stone pillar gave Jeri's kidnapper a huge advantage.

"MarineDevimon!" Takato called to the evil digimon as he resurfaced once again.

The digimon stopped, standing there on the surface of the water. "Yes? Why have you called me? I was having such fun destroying you!"

"What do you want with Jeri? Why won't you let us go?" Takato demanded.

The cruel smile returned to MarineDevimon's face. "Ah, the girl tamer. I myself have no tamer, therefore cannot reach my full power. If I did have a tamer, then I could attain my Mega level, and become all powerful, could I not? And this girl is the only human currently in the digital world without a partner, is she not?"

"Yea.. I-I guess she is.." Takato replied, confused. How could he disagree? What MarineDevimon was saying was true. "But just leave her alone! She can't just become your tamer just like that! She already had a partner, and I'm sure she doesn't want you as her new one!"

"Oh really? Well, without a partner, in the digital world you are week." MarineDevimon began to approach. "Now if you'll just let the girl go, I'd like to claim what's rightfully mine."

Takato tightened arms around Jeri, and she clung to him harder than ever. "Takato, please don't let him take me away. Please don't let me go.." she whispered into his chest. 'I wish I weren't so defenceless,' she thought. 'I wish Leomon were here. Then I could fight for myself, and I wouldn't have to always be protected by everyone else. I wouldn't be a burden.'

"Jeri," Takato's voice sounded surprised. When the girl in his arms didn't move, he repeated her name, louder this time. "Jeri! Your d-arc!"

Jeri pulled away from Takato and reached into a pocket of the strange dress she was wearing, where he d-arc was. The screen on the yellow and white digivice was glowing with light.

All of a sudden, the roof above them cracked, then fell open, lighten the once shadowy cavern. The two tamers looked up towards the opening, trying to see the source of the broken ceiling, but only saw a silhouette against the bright sun. Then suddenly they heard a familiar voice.

"Fist of the Beast King!"

And a digimon collided with MarineDevimon, fist-first, knocking him into the water.

"L-leomon?" Jeri whispered.

x.X.X.x

(A/N: oooh cliffie! sorry again about taking so so soooo long to update..I just have such a busy schedule.. urg.

I'll try to get the next chappie up asap!

review, please!


	10. Chapter 10

(A/N: Sorry this story's been taking so long to upload... I've been so busy since the start of second semester..

Sorry bout the cliffie last chapter!! It'll all be resolved in this chapter! :D

Thanks for the reviews, reviewers!

x.X.X.x

Takato's eyes widened at what he saw. Either his vision was deceiving him, or Jeri's once-deleted partner had come back to life, and was attacking MarineDevimon. Not that he wasn't happy about it. He was happy, just slightly confused.

Jeri spoke from beside him, snapped out of her state of shock at seeing her partner. "That.. that's Leomon!" she gasped.

The two tamers looked on as said digimon hit MarineDevimon with another barrage of attacks, not giving him enough time to retreat underwater. WarGrowlmon finally came to his senses and launched an atomic blaster as the enemy was thrown into the air by Leomon's attack. MarineDevimon was hit full in the chest, and shattered into data at the impact. The last they heard was his cold, cruel laugh as his data floated upwards.

Noticing his deleted enemy's data going up towards the ceiling, Takato remembered something. Something that was on the ceiling, waiting like a sleeping tigers above them, ready to awaken at the first sign of a digimon that reached them.

"Jeri!" he said to the girl beside him. "We have to get out of here! The Mortitiamon above us are gonna wake up once they sense that data!"

Jeri nodded in response, and Takato called to WarGrowlmon. Climbing up on his back, he offered Jeri a hand up. But she was too busy looking at the digimon who stood in from of her. "Leomon? Is that really you?" she whispered.

The two-legged lion nodded. "Of course it is, Jeri."

"How.. How did you...?"

Takato reluctantly interrupted her. "Jeri, we can talk later. Right now we have to get out of here!"

Jeri accepted his help up onto WarGrowlmon's back, and they took off, jumping from rock to rock, back towards the others, with Leomon following them. Then they came to the spot where the four Seadramon had destroyed the rocks around the other tamers' column. There was nowhere to land that would be close enough.

"What are we going to do now?" Takato moaned, as Jeri waved to the others across the vast expanse of water. "We could try to jump, but if we miss, we sink!"

"I think we should try it." Jeri said calmly. Takato looked at her as if she were insane. "What? Well, if we don't at least try, then we'll be stuck here forever!"

Takato, naturally, agreed with her. "Okay, WarGrowlmon. Do you think you can do this?"

"I can try. It's gonna be a rough ride!" the digimon replied.

Jeri turned to call back to Leomon. "Do you think you can make it across?"

He nodded in response, and both digimon began backing up, getting ready for the jump. At once, they both ran forwards at full speed and launched themselves into the air. Jeri clung to Takato as they soared through the air, and both tamers squinted their eyes shut. Suddenly, they were on solid ground again, landing with a thump.

Jeri's grip slowly loosened on Takato's arm. The two of them opened their eyes to see the other eight tamers and digimon rushing towards them.

"Jeri, are you okay?" Rika demanded, then took in the dress that she was wearing. "What are you wearing..?"

"MarineDevimon put me in this dress..." Jeri said, still slightly shell-shocked at the past events. "WarGrowlmon and Leomon destroyed him though,"

"Leomon?" Ryo echoed, confused. Then sixteen pairs of eyes, both belonging to the digimon and tamers, traveled to where Leomon was standing, slightly behind WarGrowlmon.

"He's ALIVE?" Kazu exclaimed.

"How did that happen?" Kenta asked, equally as confused as his friend.

"Can we talk later?" Nami whimpered. Then the tamers noticed that the Mortitiamon seemed to be stirring.

"MarineDevimon's data woke them up," Takato told the tamers. "Now we have to get out of here!"

"How are we supposed to do that? If we exit by Leomon's hole, they'll catch us! We could try swimming out, but our digimon are completely drained!" Henry said.

"I guess it's worth a try," Rika said, as none of the others had a better idea.

Takato turned to address the digimon, most of which were in their rookie forms, including Guilmon, who had de-digivolved after his jump. "Are you guys okay with this?"

There was a collective "Yes" from the digimon, eager to get away from the eerie Mortitiamon. Some of the digimon, being Renamon, Monamon and Lunamon, offered to digivolved into their champion form. Their tamers reluctantly agreed, and all ten of the teenagers swiped an Aquatic Attack card through their d-arc.

Both tamers and digimon jumped into the water, and took off down the tunnel. Each clung to their digimon, and those who's digimon was too small or too weak to be held onto rode another tamer's stronger digimon. Henry sat behind Alice on Dobermon's back, while Kenta clung to Kat from behind as Kitsumon sped through the water. Takato held onto one of Cyberdramon's shoulders, since Guilmon was too tired from his fight with MarineDevimon.

After several quick shoulder checks, it was determined that they weren't being followed by the Mortitamon. The digimon slowed their pace, and some of the tamers let go to swim alongside them. After a while, the tunnel turned upwards, and the group swam upwards towards the light. They finally resurfaced to find the daylight quickly disappearing.

"Aw man.. now we're gonna be half-naked AND cold!" Kazu whined, as they climbed out of the water.

"I can't see a thing!" Kat complained, as she and the tamers searched for their clothes by feel.

"No problem!" Guilmon said cheerfully. "Pyrosphere!" Instantly, numerous globes of red light ignited a fire, illuminating the clearing and the pond. It made things slightly easier to find the missing clothes, but most of the surrounding area was still in shadows.

Rika had found her pants, but not her t-shirt. She had a feeling it had been tossed over towards a bush.. but she didn't have any idea of where that bush might be. She felt her way through the dark, in the general direction she thought her shirt was. Suddenly, she heard movement.

"Who's there?" she whispered, trying to see out into the dark. Then she felt a pair of arms encircle her waist. Rika took a breath, ready to scream. But then a voice sounded from behind her.

"Rika, it's okay!" Ryo whispered. "It's just me!"

Immediately Rika relaxed into him, leaning against his muscular chest. "Ryo, don't scare me like that. You nearly made me punch you in the face!"

Ryo laughed quietly, and Rika could almost feel him grinning. "What are you doing all the way over here, anyways? Waiting for me to come find you?" As he spoke, Ryo turned Rika around in his arms, so they were face to face.

"No, of course I wasn't!" Rika protested. "I was out here to get my shirt! I can't find-" Rika stopped talking when she realized what she had just said so casually. Both tamers subconsciously looked down, noticing without fail the fact that neither of them were wearing anything more than underwear. Instantly, they adverted their eyes, faces flaming hot.

"Ryo.. maybe we shouldn't be-" Rika was cut off again by Ryo's lips against her own. 'This is unexpected..' she thought. 'But I have to admit, I'm not exactly willing to pull away...'

As usual, they were broken apart when the other tamers started calling for them.

"Ryo..." Rika trailed off, at a loss for words.

"Rika..." Ryo responded, his voice quiet.

"RIKA! RYO! WHERE DID YOU GUYS GO?" Kazu's loud voice broke through their moment.

"You know, none of them actually know we're together," Ryo said to Rika, the annoyance apparent in his voice. The two had sprang apart at the sound of movement coming towards them, and were now walking about a foot apart. Rika reached across Ryo and plucked her shirt off a nearby bush, and slipped it on over her semi-dry underwear.

The other tamers were already dressed and clustered around a fire, trying to keep warm. Jeri had changed out of her ornate dress and back into her normal clothes.

"There you guys are!" Kazu exclaimed. "We were about to send out a search party! What took you so long?"

Rika quickly thought up a lie to cover up where she and Ryo had been. "Uhm.. Ryo dropped his d-arc out in the forest, and he MADE-" she accented the word 'made' to emphasize that she wasn't out there willingly with him, and hopefully make her lie believable. "-me look for it with him!" She made a huffy noise, and walked in what she hoped to be an angry way to sit with Alice and Jeri, who both gave her looks that said 'We-know-you're-lying' and 'You're-telling-us-everything' at the same time.

"So, how exactly did you get here, Leomon?" Henry asked, speaking the question that everyone wanted to know. The digimon looked up from his position behind Jeri.

"When Impmon was returned to the digital world, the digimon sovereign were able to collect my data from his, since he willingly gave it to them." Leomon began. The tamers listened closely, curious to see how everything had happened. "Then they re-created a digi-egg from my data, since they didn't have enough to return me to anything higher than that form. I had to wait to hatch, and to be strong enough to digivolve, to come and see you. Azulongmon told me the same happened with Dobermon, but he was re-created before me, since his data was much fresher on the digimon. Azulongmon told me neither Dobermon nor your partners would remember what happened."

"We'll have to thank Azulongmon next time we see him," Jeri said, grateful to the sovereign for reuniting her with Leomon. An exhausted Calumon dozed on her lap, despite the fact that he had been sleeping the afternoon. Jeri yawned and leaned on Takato, who was sitting beside her.

"I think we should go to bed soon," the goggle-headed boy suggested, clearly tired as well. "We'll need rest if the Mortitiamon try to attack us tomorrow.

The tamers shuddered at the though of those cold, ragged creatures. Of course, after being reminded of the morbid digimon, none of them wanted to sleep in their tent alone. The five girls readily admitted to it, but the boys were much too proud to say they were scared to be alone in the dark. Finally, they managed to convince the girls that they would all share the biggest tent, so Ryo, Henry, Takato, Kenta and Kazu would be 'ready to protect the girls' if something happened. Several minutes later, they were all fast asleep, cuddled together partly because of cold, but mostly for comfort.

x.X.X.x

"Kazu.. get your foot out of my face.." Ryo complained. Everyone had begun to stir as the light flooded through the thin walls of the tent. Groggily, Rika opened her eyes and took in the scene around her. Kazu had spread himself out in his sleep, and was taking up a third of the tent, with the the other tamers on one side, and Nami sleeping on the other. Takato and Jeri were both sleeping on their sides, Takato's face buried in the back of Jeri's hair, while Henry and Alice lay facing each other, one of Henry's arms draped across Alice's waist. Kat slept curled up at Kenta's side, her face resting on the side of his chest. Rika reluctantly detactched herself from Ryo's arms, and sat up. Most of the tamers were still asleep, besides Alice, Henry, Jeri, Ryo and herself, who were begining to sit up.

Rika stood up and made her way out of the tent, stepping over the sleeping bodies and quietly unzipping the flap.

"Morning, Renamon," Rika greeted her partner, as she stepped out of the tent. The digimon was perched in a nearby tree, watching the sky.

"Rika, something just doesn't feel right." Renamon said, a worried look on her face. "I can't place what, but something just feels tense."

Rika paused a moment, but couldn't experience the feeling Renamon was talking about herself. Never the less, she trusted her partner's judgment. "I'll talk to the others when they wake up."

Soon enough, all ten of the tamers were outside in the clearing. Even Kazu, who had to be dragged out of bed, was half awake. It had already been decided that they would pack up and move their camp today, because it seemed too dangerous to stay in this place after the episode with Jeri being kidnapped. Everyone had split up into groups of twos and threes, and were taking down the tents.

As Henry helped Takato fold up the ground sheet, Terriermon tugged on his pant leg. "Henry, is it just me or does something feel.. well, heavy?"

Henry and Takato stopped folding up their tent to see if Terriermon was right. Sure enough, Henry and Takato both felt a weird sensation go through their body.

"It almost feels like we're being watched," Takato shuddered, glancing around the clearing quickly. "This is weird!"

"To me it seems like everything is holding it's breath. Listen, nothing's moving! Not even the leaves on the trees!" Henry said. "This isn't good. We have to warn everyone else!"

Just as Takato and Henry turned to run towards the others, Nami, who had been helping Kazu, Kenta and Jeri fold up a tent, collapsed. She fell to her knees, clutching her head in pain. A whimper escaped her lips, and then she fell motionless.

"Nami!" Kazu and Kat cried at the same time. Both ran over, reaching the girl before the others. Kazu picked her up gently, and Kat felt her forehead.

"She's burning up!" Kat exclaimed. Then something clicked in her mind. "Kazu, turn Nami over." she commanded. When Kazu obliged, Kat immediatly pulled Nami's ebony hair back from her neck. The surrounding tamers' eyes widened in shock as they saw the mark on the back of Nami's neck. The eerie crescent-moon mark on the back of Nami's neck was glowing a deep, electric purple, the colour bordering on ultra-violet. "We have to get out of here. Now!" Kat whispered, her eyes glinting with fear.

The tamers didn't ask question, and immediatly finished packing up the last of the tents. Terriermon, Guilmon, Renamon and Monamon digivolved into their champion form. The tamers quicly strapped the tents and other heavy supplies onto Gargomon and Leomon, and climbed onto the remaining digimon's backs. Jeri sat on Growlmon's shoulder with Takato, and Henry rode on Dobermon behing Alice. Kenta, as usual, was perched on Guardromon's shoulder, as MarineAngemon flew beside them.

"What about Nami?" Kazu asked, still holding the unconscious girl. Lunamon was doing no better, motionless in Kat's arms.

"I can take her on Kyuubimon's back," Rika volunteered. "Kyuubimon's strong enough for extra weight."

As soon as everything was in order, the tamers set off at full speed. Guardromon, Kitsumon and Cyberdramon flew low along the treeline, as the other digimon rain along the forest floor. Soon enough they had cleared the woods and were out onto open desert. So far, there were no signs of other life.

"Keep going!" Takato called to everyone. "We'll take shelter in a cave somewhere around here! The hardest part is going to be getting across this desert without being attacked, if there is something or someone out there."

They continued moving towards the faraway mountains, and were almost there by the time trouble inevitably showed it's face.

Rika felt it first, because of her connection with Kyuubimon. A cold feeling was seeping through her veins, chilling her to the bone. Looking up to the sky, she a cloud of black swiftly moving towards their group. It seemed that the rest of the group noticed as well, judging by a scream that sounded like Jeri, accompagnied by several gasps. "What is that thing?" Rika murmured to Kyuubimon.

The thing she was referring to was what looked at first to be a large, ragged black sheet flying among a group of Mortitamon and a few Sayonamon. Upon closer inspection, it still ressembled a large sheet, but around the top in the middle was a white oval, what one could assume was a face. Also, there were four stringy arms coming from the corners of the dark square. It appeared that this strange and creepy digimon was coming towards them, and fast.

"Rika, this one is strong, much, much stronger than the others. It seems like because of the vast amount of Mortitiamon, Sayonamon and this creature, the energy levels in the digital world are being imbalanced, and badly." Kyuubimon warned Rika.

"So what's that going to mean for us?" Rika asked, keeping a firm hold on the still unconscious Nami as Kyuubimon sped up.

"It means that mass amounts of data streams will begin gathering here. We'll have get to those mountains soon!"

As if to prove Kyuubimon's point, a data stream cut it's way dangerously close to the group. Rika instructed Kyuubimon to fall back, so that she could tell the other tamers what this meant. The group had been clustered tightly together, with Rika at the head. Exchanging a few signals with Henry and Takato, Rika lead the group behind a large boulder so they could meet.

"...So we have to get to those mountains as soon as we can, and avoid being attacked by our pursuers." Rika concluded, after explaining the situation to the other tamers.

"There's no way we'll be able to get all the way over there without the Mortitiamon seeing us and attacking us!" Takato exclaimed. "And what's with that gigantic black blanket?"

"It's probably their mega form," Henry answered. "I've tried to get a reading on it, but there are too many other digimon surrounding it."

Ryo, who had been peering around the side of the rock to check the black cloud's progress, turned back to the tamers with a worried look on his face. "They've gotten really close. We have to hurry!"

As quickly as they could, everyone got back onto their appropriate digimon, prepared to set out. Kazu and Kenta, both on Guardromon's shoulders, flew to the top of the boulder, remaining hidden, but peeking out just enough to see if it was safe to go. As soon as they gave the go-ahead signal, the group took off.

Looking behind her, Rika saw the mass of black digimon in hot pursuit of them. "Hurry!" she shouted to the others, but they were already going as fast as they could go. Suddenly, the ground between Growlmon and Dobermon was hit with a blast of red, knocking the two digimon off balance. Jeri and Henry were both thrown off. Alice and Takato quickly turned Dobermon and Growlmon around, but in the confusion Alice grabbed Jeri's hand, and Takato pulled Henry up onto Growlmon.

Above them, Guardromon was dodging the attacks of the Mortitiamon. Inevitably, a blast connected with its target, throwing Kazu and Kenta off his shoulders and knocking him earthwards. Kat, who was flying ahead on Kitsumon, did a sharp turn to try and catch the falling boys. It really didn't seem to be the tamer's lucky day, because Kat only managed to catch one of the boys- and not the one she would have preferred to catch. Kazu landed with a thump on Kitsumon's back, as Kat cried after Kenta.

The group had a stroke of luck, though, when Growlmon was positioned below the falling tamer, and was alerted by Kat's scream. He managed to catch Kenta in his forepaws, letting Kat sigh with relief. Now that everyone was securely on a digimon, the group upped their pace.

Their stroke of luck didn't last long, though. The gigantic sheet-like digimon took the opportunity to land directly in front of the tamers, cutting them off. As it touched the ground on it's spindly legs, its form changed from a gigantic square to a tall shape, ressembling a child's ghost costume. All that could be distinguished as the face was an oval-shaped white mask, with two round black holes where they eyes would be. (A/N: Picture No-Face from Spirited Away, now make him very very tall and thin, with ragged edges and no mouth.)

The digimon raised it's two thin arms, preparing an attack. There was nothing the tamers could do to stop it. Looking around them, they were surrounded. All they could do was brace themselves for the impact. The impact that never came.

Perhaps it was their stroke of good luck that had returned, or it could have just been even more bad luck. Either way, the tamers were spare from the attack.

Opening her eyes, which had been squeezed tight in fear, Rika saw two data streams approaching them, both going parellel to the other. Their attackers had scattered, in fear of the approaching data streams. Rika realized that at the rate they were going, the group was inescapably going to be swept up. There was nothing they could do but hope that they'd be taken to a safer place.

In the remaining seconds before the streams hit, Rika locked eyes with Ryo. Then the group was split in two by the streams, each half going to a different location.

x.X.X.x

Rika raised her head slowly, her whole body aching. She looked up, taking in her surroundings. They appeared to be in a chrystal cavern, the light tinted blue. Rika noticed the four other tamers that lay nearby. Takato, Henry and Kenta were farther over, with Guilmon, Terriermon and MarineAngemon. Kat was closer, clutching Lunamon.

Ryo wasn't there.

x.X.X.x

(A/N: I kno, it's another cliffie.. i was going to write more, but then i realized i was going over my personal limit..

next chappie will be up asap!

review, please!! )


	11. Chapter 11

(A/N: Still taking ages to update... I just never find time to write..

By the way, you might have noticed I changed my account name from January and Etheron to January Frost. I just got bored of the other one... :D

Here's chapter 11!

x.X.X.x

Ryo awoke with a start to find himself lying on something soft. Opening his eyes, he saw the sky above him. 'Good,' he thought. 'Sky is good. At least there's an 'up' to this place.' He slowly started to close his eyes again. Then something registered in his brain. Pink sky. Pink sky is NOT normal. Ryo sat up and looked around. His eyes widened as he took in his surroundings, which consisted of endless puffy hills in pastel colours. As soon as he had sat up, he began sinking back down into the ground. It was like he was sitting on marshmallows.

"Ryo? Are you here too?" It was Jeri's small voice, and hearing it Ryo turned around to see the girl perched on a heap of pale green 'marshmallows', Leomon sitting beside her. "I can't see anyone else!"

Ryo tried to pull himself out of the squishy seat, but had no luck. "Jeri, I can't get out of here!" he called to her, squirming. "How did you get up there?"

"I climbed..?" Jeri said, slightly unsure of why Ryo was having so much trouble. "Maybe it's just 'cause I'm lighter than you!" she said cheerfully. "We should try to find everyone else," Jeri stood up on the small hill, and happily slid down. Bouncing slightly, she made her way over to Ryo, offered him a hand and pulled him out of his prison. Jeri burst into giggles as Ryo sank down again. "There must be something different about the way girls and guys stand," she said between giggles.

Ryo pulled himself out, and the two looked around them. Ryo noticed a flash of black behind a cluster of baby blue clumps. Then a head popped up, and Kazu called to them, "A little help over here? Guardromon's stuck!"

When Ryo and Jeri had made it over, they found Kazu attempting to dig out the robot, whose head was the only part of him visible. Leomon easily reached down and yanked him up, scattering the marshmallows everywhere, and leaving a pit in his wake.

"I can finally breathe again!" Kat, who had been pinned behind Guardromon, gasped. Monamon fluttered up out of the pit, helping Kat out. "Where's Kenta?"

"Nobody else is here," Alice spoke, walking up behind them. "This is everyone."

Ryo looked at the faces of the four others around them. So the only people there were him, Kazu, Kat, Alice and Jeri.. that meant... "Where's Rika?" he demanded.

Alice shook her head solemnly. "Not here. She was pulled away along with Takato, Kenta, Nami and Henry by another data stream. I don't know where they are."

"Then... then Takato might be hurt somewhere out in the digital world?" Jeri said, panic straining her voice.

Kat put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "He has the others there with him, and Guilmon's there to protect them. Don't worry, we'll find them."

"If we can find out where WE are first.." Kazu muttered grumpily.

Shortly after Kazu had spoken, Calumon came tumbling over a puffy pink hill. "Jeri!" he cried happily, bouncing up and down at the girl's feet. "It's like a whole world of creampuffs here! I wonder if I can eat--" the little digimon stopped short at the dismal looks on the five surrounding tamers' faces. "Why does everyone look so angry?"

x.X.X.x

Things where Rika was weren't going much better. After everyone had come to, realized they weren't anywhere near where they were before and then realized that they were only half the amount they had been before they'd magically changed places.

"So where exactly are we?" Henry addressed the group. He had taken Takato's place as temporary leader, as Takato was rather mopey, Jeri not being there. "Clearly we aren't anywhere near the place where we were attacked by the Mortitiamon. It's obvious that we were transported by a data stream to this place, but I guess the question is, where are the others?" He couldn't concentrate on his words while his mind was so focused on the abscence of Alice. 'Let's face it,' he thought. 'Some strange force has separated each of us from the on we care for the most, and we're hopeless without them. I guess it could be coincidental, but it seems too precise.'

"Maybe they're in this cave, just in a different area," Kenta suggested optimistically. "After all, we were all seperated when we woke up.. maybe they're just through that tunnel!" he pointed at a random opening out of many in the wall.

Rika raised her eyebrows. "Uh-huh, and the exit to this cave is just a hop, skip and a jump behind that. Give me a break."

She hated to admit it, but Rika was really worried about Ryo. Also, she... well, she kinda missed him. But just a bit. It's not as if she was desperate for his ever-happy presence beside her, for his comforting body heat at her side, for his triumphant grin and sparkling blue eyes when he had called her his Wildcat, and she had given him a glare... No, she didn't miss him! She would NOT be the type of girl to sit in a corner and sob when their possible boyfriend was gone..

Then she noticed Nami, sitting nearby with her legs pulled up against her chest, her face buried in her knees. Rika made her was over to the girl, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Are you okay?" she asked the black-haired girl.

Nami looked up at her with her pale-green eyes. "I-I just miss K-Kazu.." she sniffed, her eyes welled up with tears. "I guess I've never really met a guy who liked me for who I am, not what I am."

"It's hard being famous, isn't it?" Rika offered, feeling she could relate to Nami as she remembered all the guys who had approached her to ask her out just because she had been on the cover of a few magazines.

Nami nodded. "I've never been able to trust anyone as I can trust you, and Jeri, and Kat, and Alice.. I guess I've never had real friends before."

Rika smiled. "I didn't really either, until I met the others. I used to be so cold and mean to everyone, even Renamon."

"I wish I had had Lunamon in the real world.." Nami sighed. "Things would've been so much easier. I just always felt so alone, since I'd been told time and time again by my publicist not to get too close to anyone, since they'd probably sell information on me to the tabloids. Of course, I was just a kid so I took her advice. I was always going from place to place on a concert tour, so I never had time to settle down with the few 'friends' I had anyways."

"It must have been hard on you," Rika sympathized. Nami was very different from the girl she had imagined the famous Namiko Orikasawa to be. She wasn't anywhere near to being a spoiled brat, constantly cheery and she hadn't heard her utter a word about 'being yourself', 'keeping a smile on your face' or the fact that 'nobody's perfect', as most of her songs liked to revolve around.

"So how did your eyes become such a light green if you're japanese?" Rika asked, changing the subject.

"Oh, my mom's french. I got the eyes from her, and the rest of me from my dad." Nami answered, her tears disappearing. The two girls chatted about their families and school, and anything else they could come up with until Henry called them over.

"We've come up with a plan," he stated. "We obviously aren't getting anywhere just sitting around in this cave, so obviously we have to try and find a way out. Takato came up with the idea of leaving a trail, in case we get lost or reach a dead end."

"A trail of what? Breadcrumbs?" Rika asked skeptically. "I don't think we have any bread on us."

"No, we don't." Takato answered, pulled slightly out of his skulking. "But Guilmon can leave scorch marks on the walls every so often, and we can follow them back."

Kenta nodded. "It's a good idea."

After the five tamers decided on a tunnel to start with, they began walking. Just in case they did happen to find a way out, they strapped their supplies to Gargomon.

"It's really dark.." Nami whispered. "I can't see a thing."

"Pyro sphere!" Guilmon's attack briefly lit up the cave, leaving a mark against the wall.

"Wait a second.." Kenta said, and his footsteps stopped. Then his face was illuminated by a pale orange light. "I brought candles!"

"You think of everything, don't you.." Rika said, not entirely impressed but grateful for the light. Kenta passed each of the tamers a candle, illuminating the tunnel. It wasn't much different from the cave they had been in, just small and thin, the walls a gray-blue stone.

The group walked for what seemed like hours (but was really only about 20 minutes) until they reached a dead end.

"Well, I guess we turn back.." Henry said. The tamers made the long trek back to the cave, and went to choose another tunnel.

After exploring three or four more of the surrounding tunnels, they were having no luck. They all either went straight up, ended completely or dropped away to nothing (Kenta had had to be rescued from falling to his death more than once).

"You know, this would be alot easier if we split up," Rika said, looking at the group. "We only have six or seven more of these tunnels left, and it would go alot faster if we each went alone."

"You have a point," Henry said. "But if anyone finds anything other than a dead end, they come back immediately, even if it's just a fork in the path."

The others agreed, and split up. Kenta and MarineAngemon went with Takato, since they would have to walk the whole time otherwise.

Rika was perched on Kyuubimon's back as her digimon barreled down a tunnel. The path just seemed to go on and on, always the same straight stone. Finally, they came to the wall at then end. No luck. Kyuubimon turned around and sprinted back.

Nobody else had had any luck either. There were only two tunnels left to try. They decided to try them as a group, so there wouldn't be any time wasted if one was the exit.

As the group of five made their way down the tunnel, Henry noticed something. "Is it just me, or does it sound like someone's singing?"

The tamers stopped to listen. Indeed, it did sound like there was a women nearby. They could barely make out the words of her song, but there was still the soft whisper of the melody. As the tamers approached, they noticed a soft purple light coming from the end of the tunnel. As they got closer, the sound of singing intensified, and the tunnel revealed a large, round chamber lit with violet lanterns. In the center was a small pond, and what appeared to be a woman pace around it. Her lips sang a bittersweet wordless tune. Her back was currently towards them, so she didn't see the watching tamers.

"Is that a human?" Nami whispered. The woman did indeed look human, her skin pale and her hair dark. A strange crown adorned her head and she was clad in a black dress that was partially covered by a purple robe. Upon closer inspection, though, two pairs of wings protruded from her back and her neck, and eight spear-ended tentacles moved with her body.

"No, that has to be a digimon," Henry replied. He pulled out his digivice and read the data. "Her name is Lilithmon, and she's a Mega level. Her attacks are Phantom Pain, Nazar Nail and Darkness Love."

(A/N: If you want to see a picture of Lilithmon, she's on Wikipedia. Look her up :D)

Almost as if one of the tamers had called her name, Lilithmon slowly turned to face them. A lazy smile spread across her purple lips as she regarded the group from under her thick lashes. "What's this we have here? Visitors, it seems. Do come in,"

Kenta, Nami and Takato slowly stepped forwards, only to be pulled back by Rika and Henry.

"Wait!" Rika hissed. "What if she's dangerous? Or if this is a trap?"

"We should consider this first," Henry whispered. "We do have our digimon with us, so we can't be entirely taken by surprise."

"I think she's relatively safe." Takato stated. "She hasn't attacked us yet, and if she really did want to destroy us, wouldn't she be chasing us by now?"

The others did have to agree with him on that point.

"Then it's settled." Takato continued. "We'll see what she can tell us about where we are, and how we get out, and if she attacks us, we run."

The tamers slowly stepped towards Lilithmon, who was still waiting patiently by the stone basin. "Now now, no need to look so frightened, darlings. I don't bite."

Gathering all his courage, Takato spoke. "Can you tell us where we are?" he asked.

"Where you are? Certainly you know that by now. You got here, didn't you?" Lilithmon asked sweetly.

"Well, actually, we were transported here by a data stream. We got seperated from our friends and were trying to find our way back to them.." Kenta said shyly.

"Oh really?" the black robed digimon replied serenely. "Well, in that case you are in the Luminscent Labrynth, my domicile."

"I can see why they call it a labrynth.." Rika muttered. She clearly didn't like being stuck underground, away from... certain people.

"Yes, well, I was shut away in this dark, gloomy place." Lilithmon said, almost sadly. "Oh, don't worry. I'm not dangerous." she added after seeing a wary look on the tamers' faces. "At least.. not anymore."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Nami asked quietly.

Lilithmon sighed. "I guess I'm going to have to tell you the whole story... might as well sit down."

Just as the five tamers were settling down on stray rocks around the cave, a crash was heard from outside the tunnel.

x.X.X.x

Ryo's legs felt as if they were about to fall off. Not only had they been walking for what seemed like hours, but they had been walking through the strange marshmallow things, and every so often Kat or Kazu would trip and fall, and then the whole group would have to stop and help either of the two out.

After the umpteenth time pulling Kat out of the ground, Ryo finally cracked.

"This is getting us nowhere!" he moaned. "We're never gonna find Rika and the others if we continue like this! Dammit!" he cried, kicking a particularly large marshmallow. It bounced across the rest of the terrain and vanished into the horizon. Suddenly, the five tamers felt a rumble.

"Wha-what's going on?" Jeri said nervously.

Alice stood up after helping Kat out of her trap. "I don't know, but it doesn't seem good.."

The ground shook more vigorously, until suddenly it stopped.

"Well, I'm glad that's over.. we should get out of here as soon as we can." Kazu sighed with relief.

But as soon as the group took a step, the marshmallows around them were flung into the air, hovering there with the tamers clinging to them for dear life.

"What's this all about?" Kazu exclaimed as he managed to pull himself up onto a pastel-green marshmallow. "Since when does the ground in the digital world just rip itself up and jump into the air?"

"That's strange..." murmured Alice, who was calmly sitting on top of a light purple glob.

"That's what I just said!" Kazu practically yelled, frustrated at having slipped off the round blob again.

"No, that's not what I meant." Alice continued, still managing to keep her balance. "What's strange is that these things don't even roll, not when Kazu grabs onto them, putting all his weight onto it. Wouldn't a normal floating object turn over?"

"Umm... I think we have bigger problems right now, Alice.." Jeri said, clinging to a pale yellow marshmallow.

"Such as?"

"Well, the fact that we're floating right above a bottomless pit, for starters.." said Kat, straddling her own marshmallow. "And maybe the fact that the blob-things over there are also starting to disappear. That might just have something to do with it!"

Looking past their group, Ryo's eyes widened in shock. Not too far away, the blobs were begginning to explode into little clouds of pastel colours, and the exploding trend was making its way towards them.

"Cyberdramon!" he called his digimon. "Get over here! Everyone else, find a digimon who can fly!"

"That doesn't exactly seem to work here!" Monamon responded from near to Kat. "The gravity's all weird, and we can get up off these marshmallow things!"

The marshmallows a few rows away from them were turning into puffs of colour, then the ones two rows away... one row away..

"We're doomed..." Kazu said, as their own globs vanished from underneath them, leaving them to tumble downwards.

x.X.X.x

Rika lead the group on Kyuubimon as the five other tamers and their partners raced after her down the tunnel. They emerged into the cavern to find ten beings sprawled in the middle of the floor, some slowly sitting up. Rika's eyes widened.

"Ryo!" she cried, running towards the brown-haired boy on the ground. Before he had even fully sat up, she threw herself into his arms, knocking him back down again.

"Well, Wildcat," Ryo said, the wind slightly knocked out of him. "Who would've thought you could be so affectionate?"

"Shut up, Pretty Boy.." she muttered into his chest.

The others were having similar happy reunions. Takato was worriedly checking Jeri for any injuries, as she giggled, simply happy to see him. Henry and Alice were, well, to put it plainly, making out. Nami was squeezing the life out of an out-of-breath Kazu, and Kat was happily cuddling with Kenta. Their moments were broken, thought, as Lilithmon approached.

"Ah, I was wondering when the rest of you would get here." she said softly.

Ryo, Kazu and Alice immediately stood up, on their guard.

"Don't worry, she's a friend.. I think." Henry said, placing a hand on Alice's shoulder. "She told us she could help us get out of here."

"You mean there's no way out?" Kat asked, her eyes wide.

"So far, no." Kenta answered.

"Would you please follow me?" Lilithmon asked pleasantly, turning down the hall half the tamers had come from. The reunited group had no choice but to follow her back into her chamber, and through a small passage at the back. They were lead into a larger room, lit by blue flames. In the middle stood a large circular table with ten d-arc shaped indents in it, each a different colour.

Suddenly, the ten tamers knew what to do. Each walked up to the table and inserted their d-arc into the colour-coded hole, the table instantly alight with colour and patterns.

x.X.X.x

(A/N: oooh, what's happened now?

soooooryyy it too soooooo long to update! I didn't want it to be more than a month, though, so I finally put myself to work :D

Just out of curiosity (not stalker-osity or anything) do I have any male readers? Just cause I've noticed that most of the Ryuki authors are female.. in fact, most authors on are female... So any guys reading this?

Thanks for all your reviews! one more and I'm at 50!!

-January


	12. Chapter 12

(A/N: I can't believe i forgot to post this... and it's been over a month! I'm sooooo incredibly sorry to all you readers still following this!

Woo! I never knew I actually had male readers! I actually wasn't sure they existed! (no offense or anything) all the guys I know would be stupid fatheads about reading a 'girly romance' fic. Hooray for you male readers out there! I adore you all!!

this chapter is dedicated to all you un-anonymous reviewers! I would say your names, but it'd take me a while, and i'd repeat them loads and loads of times...  
And thanks to everyone who's kept with my fic!

on with the story!!

x.X.X.x

"What just happened?" Rika asked, pulling her hand away from her d-arc as if it were on fire. In fact, it was quite hot. The other tamers did the same, and the glowing patterns on the table quickly faded. "That thing nearly burnt my hand!"

"I'm afraid you're going to have to live with it, dear." Lilithmon said softly. "This is your only way out."

"What do you mean by that?" Henry asked suspiciously. "How can this stone table actually get us out of here?"

"That I am not sure of. But what I do know is that when each of you is touching his or her own digivice and the patterns are fully illuminated, a portal to your world will open, and we will all be able to safely get out of here."

"We?" Ryo asked, narrowing his eyes. "As in you're coming too?"

Lilithmon smiled. "Well, I wouldn't have helped you if there wasn't something in it for me, now would I?"

Ryo leaned closer to Rika to whisper "I don't trust her..."

"What choice do we have?" Rika whispered back. "To rot in this cave?"

"Now, shall we get back to getting out of here?" Lilithmon asked sweetly. "Why don't we practice one by one?"

"Why do we need to practice? Is this going to be dangerous?" Jeri asked, her eyes growing wide.

"You just need to get used to this. Now stop asking so many question, children." Lilithmon said sweetly. "Who's going first?"

Takato, being the leader, was elected to be the first one to try. He cautiously placed his hand on his D-arc, still settled in its hole, and the tamers gasped as burning red patterns began to emerge on the stone table. Takato winced slightly, and nearly pulled away, but relaxed when Jeri took his free hand. After a few moments, Lilithmon allowed him to pull away.

Before Henry went up to the circular stone, he turned to Lilithmon.

"What exactly does this do, anyways? Why do all of us have to be touching the digivices at once?"

"What the table is doing is reading your human data so it can match it to the real world and find a portal to slip us through. The D-arc channels the data through the carvings, hence the light, and to the crystal in the center." Lilithmon explained, seeming slightly impatient. "All ten of you need to be touching it at the same time to provide it with enough data. Now would you hurry up?"

Henry shrugged and placed his hand on the digivice. His segment of the table was instantly illuminated with emerald green criss-crossing lines. After Henry was Rika, who calmly stood there taking in the strange sensation and watching the royal blue patterns twist up to the center of the stone table. Ryo confidently went next, though barely retained a yelp of pain. Rika smirked when he was released and had walked back to her. Alice was next, and seemed more intrigued than in pain as her barely detectable black shadowy lines snaked across her section of the tablet. Kenta furrowed his brow in concentration as his loopy pale-pink lines lazily made their way to the center. Kat hissed through her teeth as her digivice singed her hands and her turquoise lines swirled over to the center. Nami went soon after her, and whimpered slightly as she watched her baby blue lines curl towards the center. Kazu, being himself, guilted Nami into holding his hand as his own mahogany zigzags crossed to the center. Last was Jeri, who took a deep breath and bravely placed her hand on her own digivice and seemed to relax as her yellow tracks danced across the stone.

The practice had taken alot of energy out of the tamers. Most of the ten were sitting down on the stone floor.

"Could we take a break before we do this teleportation thing?" Kazu complained from his position on the ground. "I think we're all tired, and we seem to have all the time in the world in this cave..."

"I guess you could have a bit of a rest to keep your strength up..." Lilithmon sighed impatiently. "But don't fall asleep. We should go as soon as we can."

As soon as the words were out of her mouth, Kazu was asleep, his head in Nami's lap and Jeri was dozing off in Takato's arms.

"So much for that..." Henry said. He turned back to Alice, who was typing viciously at her laptop. A short distance away, Kat and Kenta were looking at the patterns on the tablet.

"Do you think these mean anything?" Kat asked the bespectacled boy, her fingers tracing the whirling designs that were previously illuminated with turquoise light. "All the other ones seem to have a pattern, but mine and Nami's are different."

Kenta looked across the round table at the other sections. Kat had a point. Each segment seemed to have a theme. Takato's red design resembled the triangular pattern on Guilmon. Henry's lines crossed each other to form diamond-shaped designs in green. Rika's curly blue lines resembled ying-yang patterns, similar to the ones on Renamon's knees. The regal purple ones were clearly Ryo's, while the wave-like soft pink lines were definetly Kenta's. Alice's design looked like graceful black lace. Kazu's lines were simple zig-zags in a dark red. The last two, Nami's and Kat's, were strange.

Kat's eyes widened as she took in her sliver of the stone table. "Wh-what's wrong with my section?" she whispered to Kenta. "Everyone else's is just a simple pattern, but mine.. and Nami's... they're..." She trailed off, subconsciously grabbing Kenta's hand and clearly frightened.

"I don't see what's wrong with that," Kenta replied calmly. "It's kinda cool, actually."

"But... this means we're different from the rest of you... which might be the same reason as why the Mortitiamon chase us so much..."

"How could that mean anything?" Kenta tried to relax the girl, giving her hand a shy squeeze. "They're just two moons, that's all. Nothing to be afraid of."

Kat slowly reached out a hand and traced the pattern in front of her, then the one beside it. Her fingers trailed over two swirling crescent moons, hers facing left and Nami's facing right, each of them with a second , smaller crescent in the empty space in the curve of the larger moon. Each of the smaller slivers had a line through it, with two dots on either side. "The mark of the Sayonamon..." Kat whispered.

x.X.X.x

"Ryo! Is this really necessary?" Rika hissed to the brown haired boy who was determinedly dragging her by the wrist. "I mean.. we don't even know could be down here? Something could attack us, or kidnap us, or.. I don't know.. EAT us or something! And what if the others notice us gone? I mean, what are they going to think the-" She was cut off as Ryo stopped abruptly and pulled her towards him, pressing his lips firmly against hers.

"Rika, don't you think they've already figured out that something's going on?" Ryo asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. Rika looked away. "I mean, you'd think that since we both seem to disappear at the same time and all... and I know for a fact that Henry and Takato know."

Rika met his eyes at this. "What did you tell them?" she asked, and a slight bit of - what? insecurity? worry? concern?- _emotion _was apparent in her voice. "That you and I keep sneaking off to make out behind everyone's backs?" Yepp, it was definitely insecurity.

"Rika, I wouldn't say things like that!" Ryo exclaimed, frantically trying not to make Rika mad at him. "I didn't even tell them! They just kinda knew!"

_Flashback_

_"So Ryo, how's that thing you have with Rika going?" Henry asked casually as he, Takato and Ryo were getting firewood before dinner._

_Ryo turned his head to look back at Henry. "Wh-what do you mean, thing? We're friends, I guess," he lied._

_"Mmhm?" Takato turned to the two boys behind him. "And I guess to perfectly good friends _normally _slip away on a regular basis to spend a good half hour or so in each other's arms, right?"_

_"Uh.. what are you talking about, Takato?" Ryo rubbed the back of his head, his expression sheepish. "I don't have any idea what you're getting to-"_

_"Yea right." Henry laughed._

_"We're just wondering how you actually got Rika to let you kiss her!" _

_"Come on! I didn't have to get her to do anything!" Ryo countered. "She did seem to mind!"_

_"Ah, the truth comes out." Henry grinned. _

_"Err.. ah- I mean..."_

_Takato and Henry just laughed, and walked back to camp, Ryo still trying to cover his mistake as he followed them._

_(End flashback)_

"I guess I might've just told Jeri and Alice about what was going on... and maybe I told Nami and Kat as well..." Rika mumbled guiltily.

Ryo grinned. "Well, that's certainly a very unnatural thing for you to do. I mean, I thought you didn't do girly,"

Rika sighed. "I'm sorry for getting so worked up about it.."

"You're apologizing?" Ryo said in mock surprise. "THE Rika Nonaka is actually apologizing to Ryo Akiyama? This is a first!"

Rika crossed her arms. "Very funny, Akiyama." She turned back towards the cave where the rest of the tamers were. "We'd better head back. Everyone else is probably anxious to get out of here." Suddenly she was stopped by two strong arms wrapped around her waist.

"Just so you know, I was very, very worried about you when we all got separated," Ryo murmured in her ear.

"Ryo.. that's very sweet and everything, but we have to go..." Rika tried to feign annoyance, but despite what she told the blue-eyed boy behind her, she didn't move an inch.

"Not til you admit you were worried about me too," he teased.

"I was worried about everyone, Akiyama, now let me go!"

"But tell the truth, you were _especially _worried about me,"

"Alright, I guess I was a little more worried about you. There, happy now?"

"And you were scared you'd never see me ever again.."

"Ryo..."

"And you'd never get to kiss me again..."

"Ryo, I am not in the mood..."

"And we'd never get to live happily ever after..."

"RYO!"

"And-" Before he could continue, Rika quickly spun around in his grasp and covered his mouth with her hand.

"Do you hear that?" Both were quiet for a moment. "It sounds like..."

"Bats?" Ryo finished for her. "But I thought Takato said there were any other digimon in this cave..."

"Unless they were down that last tunnel,"

"We really need to get back, then."

"That's what I've been telling you!" Rika muttered as Ryo grabbed her hand and took off towards the cavern.

The two burst into the room to find the rest of the tamers as they had been before, perfectly calm. As both of them bent over to catch their breath, Jeri looked up and smiled. "Oh, you two are back! Did you have a nice... er.. talk?" She turned back to Takato, completely oblivious to Rika's glare.

Nami gasped from across the room.

"What's wrong?" Henry immediately asked. "Is that mark on the back of your neck hurting again?"

"I think Kazu just drooled on my skirt.." Nami groaned.

"That's what you get for letting him sleep on your lap," Kenta sighed. "Should've pushed him off when you got the chance."

"This is really strange.." Alice spoke from a little ways away. "I can't get any data on this portal. Maybe we shouldn't use it, it might not be safe."

"We might not have a choice," Rika said once she had caught her breath. "Ryo and I think we heard some sort of flying digimon out in the tunnel."

Everyone paused to listen.

"I don't hear anything..." Takato said.

Renamon broke her usual silence. "I do. There's a large group of digimon coming, but they're not close." she said calmly.

"Maybe a few of us could go see what it is," Ryo suggested. "After all, if it's just some small digimon we could easily take care of, there's no point getting all worked up and using this portal-thing before we're ready."

"Good idea. How about you, Henry and I can go check it out." Takato replied. "The rest of you can get ready, just in case, and wake Kazu up."

To be on the safe side, Terriermon and Guilmon digivolved into their champion forms, and Henry and Takato climbed onto WarGrowlmon's shoulders, while Ryo was carried by Cyberdramon. The group headed down the tunnel in silence, listening for any sounds of movement.

"I can definitely hear something now," Henry stated. "It sounds like a large flock of birds or something."

Just then, something appeared around a bend in the tunnel, several meters ahead of them. The black creature was followed by several others, and before the boys could turn and run, an eerie, yellow eyed head appeared. The flock of Mortitiamon began to fly full-pelt towards the three.

"Guys, RUN!" Henry shouted.

Apparently deaf to his warning, Cyberdramon attacked. "Desolation Claw!"

"Ryo, we can't fight them! There are too many for us to take!" Takato cried. But instead of hitting the advancing black mass, the attack hit the ceiling, knocking a cascade of stoned down and blocking off the passage.

"That should hold them off for long enough," Ryo explained. "We have to get back, quickly!"

x.X.X.x

Meanwhile, Kat, Kenta and Nami were having no luck at waking up Kazu.

"Just hit him or something!" Rika advised, too busy to do it herself as she was trying to help Alice get a ready on the stone tablet that was supposed to take them home.

"We've tried already! Several times!" Kenta replied.

Suddenly, Kat clapped her hands. "I have an idea!" she giggled.

"I'm open to suggestions," Nami said, still trying to shake Kazu. "What's the idea?"

"Well... you know in that fairy tale where the princess falls asleep, and she can only be woken up by a handsome prince...?" Kat began, pretending not to know what she was talking about.

"What you're saying is that Nami should kiss Kazu." Alice finished for her, quite bluntly. Rika laughed.

"Well, it's worth a try, isn't it?" Kat shrugged. "But I guess if Nami wants to have him asleep on her til who knows when..."

Nami had turned quite red by then. "Well.. I-I guess I could t-try it..."

"I can't believe you can even think of doing that without throwing up." Rika muttered.

"Here goes nothing," Nami whispered, as she leaned down to the boy on her lap and softly touched his lips with hers. As soon as she brought them away, Kazu's eyes instantly flew open, and he slowly sat up, his face still inches away from Nami's. Then, as if he had just realized something, his eyes widened, and he blushed.

"Nami? Did you just..?"

Nami blushed even redder, and nodded slightly. Kazu gently reached up and brushed a strand of ebony hair from her face, then leaned in and brought his lips to hers again.

After a few moments, Kenta coughed awkwardly, and Rika spoke up. "Um, this is all very touching, but this really isn't the time..."

Quickly, Nami and Kazu broke apart. Kazu yawned, and rubbed the back of his neck, while Nami quietly tried to apologize.

"I wonder what's taking Takato, Ryo and Henry so long..?" Jeri wondered. As if on cue, the three boys, along with Gargomon, Growlmon and Cyberdramon crashed through the entrance.

"We have to get out of here, NOW!" Ryo shouted. "There's a huge flock of Mortitiamon, and Sayonamon!"

"So we're all ready now?" Lilithmon inquired calmly, slipping out of the shadows.

"I don't know about this tablet! What if it isn't safe?" Alice protested.

"Alice is right, maybe we shouldn't do this," Henry said. But as soon as the words left his mouth, a loud crash was heard from down the passage.

"It sounds like the Mortitiamon have broken down our barrier!" Ryo exclaimed. "We don't have much choice, we have to get out of here!"

Nobody could argue with him on that point, so each tamer stepped up to their section of the stone tablet.

"Ready?" Takato asked, looking around at the other nine. When they all nodded, he continued. "On three. One.. two.. THREE!"

In unison, the ten of them placed their hands onto the d-arcs in front of them. Once again, the tablet was illuminated by a rainbow of colours. The crystal in the middle was suddenly alight, and before everyone's eyes a sphere appeared in mid air. Slowly, the blue-green blur floating in the middle began to clear.

"Is that the earth?" Kenta gasped.

Lilithmon smiled. "It's working," her smooth voice spoke from behind Rika. "Get ready, tamers."

Suddenly, the room around them seemed to fall away, as well as the stone tablet. All that remained were the tamers, the digimon, the d-arcs underneath their hands and the floating patterns, leading up the the sphere in the center. Now the orb showed a familiar park, the one located in West Shinjuku.

"Guys, umm.. is it just me or are we floating in space?" Kazu asked. The others took in their surroundings, realizing that they were, in fact, surrounded by stars. Looking down, they saw none other than planet earth. "What's going-"

Once again, everything fell away in an instant. This time when they opened their eyes the saw solid ground beneath their feat, and tall buildings above the tree line. They were back.

"We're home," Takato said, before his d-arc dropped to the ground, and he passed out from exhaustion.

x.X.X.x

Well, there's chapter 12, finally finished! Sorry again for the ultra long break... --;

I won't have the next chapter up for over 2 more weeks, since I'm going away to summer camp. I'll try my best to have it up soon after I get back, but I can't make any promises!

Thanks to everyone who reviews!! :D


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